Reign of terror
by madmax2910
Summary: What would happen if regular military had stopped Reign with lethal force?
1. Shot in the Dark

**National City, 23:00**

Norton lay flat on a roof, the rain pounding his gear. It was cold and wet, but he focused only on his target. He took careful aim with his high caliber sniper rifle, before speaking. „Command, this is Longbow. I have a clear shot on the target. Repeat, clear shot. No civilians and no friendlies in the way." His radio stayed silent, but only for a second. "Longbow, this is Command. Take the shot." The soldier ever so slightly adjusted his weapon, exhaled, and fired.

Kara was in trouble. She knew it, the moment the fight had started. Reign was more than her equal in strength and all the training she had received from Alex and Mon-El didn't help her much. They exchanged punches, heat vision blasts and kicks that would have vaporized lesser beings, yet their kryptonian physiology could withstand the punishment they were inflicting upon each other. Until that last move, when Reign managed to grab Karas' cape and slammed her body into the ground with an overhead throw using both arms. Pavement cracked and concrete turned to rubble from the sheer force with which her body hit the street. Supergirl was used to taking heavy physical punishment, but this stressed her limits to an extend she had never experienced before. As she caught her breath she could see Reign hovering just a few meters above the ground, her eyes a mixture of disgust and triumph. Suddenly, something changed. Triumph became pain, became disbelief as her opponent fell to the ground. Kara scrambled to her feet and ran over as her super hearing picked up the faint sound of a gunshot far away. Reign lay flat on her back, bleeding from a nasty looking wound in her chest. She tried to help her, stabilize or at least check her vitals but as Kara approached the kryptonians' body she could feel a pain. A very familiar pain, a feeling that she remembered from quite a few occasions. A feeling she wanted to forget and never experience again. She took one final look at Reigns' body to realize that, yes, her fears were justified. The green glow of Kryptonite was impossible to miss.

"Command, this is Longbow. Target down." "Affirmative Longbow, proceed to evac zone Bravo. Our satellite has confirmed the kill, great shot." "Roger Command, Longbow out." Norton put his rifle back into the bag that he used to carry it and made his way down. Just as he stepped onto the street, something swooped down from the sky and knocked him out.

A few hours later, J'onn, Alex, Kara and Winn stood around the main map table inside the DEO building and were confused.

"So, what do we have?" started J'onn. Alex was the first to reply.

"I checked the rifle. It looks like a modified version of the M-82. Barrel, chamber and magazine had some thin lead shielding added to it, probably to protect against radioactive ammunition. So yes" she said, before Kara could interrupt her, "this weapon was purpose-built to fire Kryptonite rounds. I also autopsied Reign, she is dead beyond any doubt. The bullet fractued upon entering her body dealing severe damage to all vital organs. Whoever made this, they were not messing around. They want to kill Kryptonians and with this, they can. But the bad news don't stop there. Kara, I don't know how else to put it, but Reign is Sam. Rubys' Mother is – was – a Kryptonian. And last night, when she attacked the city, she died." Kara was speechless. She was devastated. Before she could say anything, J'onn nodded to Alex in approval, then turned to Winn.

"Anything on the shooter?"

"Well, he hasn't said anything since he woke up." Winn replied. "But with his picture and our facial recognition software, I was able to find his records." He typed something into his tablet and a file opened on the main screen. "Master Sergeant Norton Davis, US Navy SEALS. 3 tours across various countries. 150 confirmed kills, completed SEAL- and sniper training with distinction. Current status: On mission, details are classified."

"On mission?" J'onn could almost not believe his ears. "Then why is he here?"

Winn shrugged. "I don't know, maybe you should ask him. But he didn't seem very talkative to me."

"Excuse me, this guy just KILLED a KRYPTONIAN! HE KILLED MY FRIEND!" Kara suddenly blurted out. "We have to FIND the people who helped him and we have to TAKE THEM DOWN!"

"Kara, relax. We are doing what we can, but something is very strange here. Why is an American elite soldier hanging out in this city? Alex, what else did this Mr Davis have on him?"

Alex raffled through some papers, before she replied. "A radio, but the frequency is dead. A pistol, but with regular ammunition. Clothes to withstand cold and rain. If you are looking for something specific..."

J'onn took the papers that were offered to him, but noticed nothing unusual. Then, he made a decision. "I'm going to talk to our guest again, keep me posted." He made his way into the containment area, until he stood in front of the cell that held Master Sergeant Davis. The only being with a confirmed kryptonian kill. J'onn asked him a few questions, but got no answer. Then he made a decision. He drew on his mental strength and focused his power, intending to read the mans' mind and learn what he knew. But just like that, J'onn hit a wall. A perfect shield surrounded this soldiers' mind with no obvious cracks for him to exploit. He probed, he prodded and searched for a weakness, but found nothing. After a minute that felt like an eternity, he sighed in frustration and returned to his friends.

"Our mysterious guest just got a whole lot stranger." J'onn said. "I can't read his mind. Something shields him from me. I have never seen such a strong mental defense, not even in other martians." Everyone looked at him, baffled.

Alex was the first to break the silence. "So, where do we go from here?"

"The old fashioned way." J'onn answered. "Start with his rifle and I want to talk to his commanding officer."

"Then you probably want to talk to me, director J'onzz." A sudden voice from behind made Kara, Alex, Winn and J'onn churn. A few meters away from them stood a man in his late fifties, with a small briefcase in his hand. He was athletic, fit for his age, with a body that spoke of years in the army. His face was harsh but had a friendly vibe to it. His hair and mustache were short and grey, he wore an olive army uniform with a dutch flag under the UN symbol, four general stars and some other emblem nobody seemed to recognize. A black cross on what looked like a blue shield. J'onn was the first to regain his composure.

"I'm sorry, who exactly are you? And how did you get in here?"

"I am General Peter Van Doorn, and I got in here by showing my credentials to the guards at the entrance. Now, I believe you wanted to talk to Master Sergeant Davis' commanding officer? Ask away, I'm right here." J'onn was even more confused now and as he looked around, he realized that the others were too. Kara was the next to speak.

"I only want to know one thing, did you help this man kill the other Kryptonian last night?" Her voice was calm, but J'onn knew that Kara was anything but. To the general, she must have seemed perfectly normal.

"Yes. I saw you losing the fight, so I gave the order to take the shot. I'm sorry it had to be this way, but this Reign character is not wrecking a city on my watch." The last part of Van Doorns answer was drowned out by Kara, who let out a scream of rage and pain, just before punching him. But something was still holding her back, because instead of dieing he was just thrown a few meters away. Shaken, but not severely injured Van Doorn got back to his feet. Together with Alex, J'onn managed to calm Kara back down. "General, we should talk in my office." As Alex comforted her half-sister, J'onn and Van Doorn entered the directors' office.

Inside, J'onn tried to read the generals' mind only to encounter the exact same defense Davis had put up earlier. For a brief moment, he considered asking about it but decided against it, until he got a better idea who he was talking to. Van Doorn was the first to speak again.  
"Now, let's cut to the chase, shall we? You are holding one of my men in illegal arrest, I demand him and all his equipment to be returned at once."

"Who are you? Or rather, who do you work for?"  
"In case you weren't listening, I am General Peter Van Doorn. I work for the United Nations. I am part of an international task force created after the daxamite invasion. Our objective is to defend the planet against any potential future invasions."

"Isn't that what the D.E.O does?"  
"Not on a world-wide scale, and not with international approval. Your organization may be dealing with events here in the US, but we handle anything outside." "Why are you operating in the US then? Why did you not let us handle Reign?"  
"Because a rogue Kryptonian is an international problem. Also because you weren't handling it. You saw it and so did I, if it wasn't for Master Sergeant Davis' intervention, Supergirl would now be dead." J'onn found it hard to argue with Van Doorns' logic. He hated to admit it, but he man had a point.  
"You may be right, but I can't just let you two walk out of here. I'll need some kind of confirmation that you are who you say you are." Van Doorn nodded, then took out his phone.  
"Central? A secure connection to the White House please. Madam President? […] Yes, this is General Van Doorn. Director J'onzz of the DEO would like to speak to you. […] No, you should call him on the phone in his office. Yes, I'll wait." The general had just ended his call, when the secure phone on J'onns' desk began ringing. With only slight hesitation, J'onn answered. He listened, closely, as the president of the United States confirmed everything Van Doorn had just told him. Then she ordered him to comply with Van Doorns request.

As he put the phone down, J'onn looked at the other man again. "Do you realize the consequences of this?" "'You mean, Supergirl and her cousin won't be happy about us developing, producing and deploying kryptonite ammo? Yes, as a matter of fact I do." The general took a deep breath, before he continued. When he spoke again, his voice had a steely sound of resolve to it. "They'll have to get over it. Besides, we mean nobody harm who just wishes to live a peaceful life on this planet. However, if they decided one day to walk into the UN and declare themselves the new gods of this world, we might have a thing or two to say about that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a plane to catch." With that, General Van Doorn left the DEO after meeting up with Master Sergeant Davis in the lobby.

 **New York, a few days later.**

Clark and Kara got off the subway and spent the remaining time walking to the United Nations building. After Reigns' attack, the two of them had done a little research and found that General Van Doorns office was located here. They were both surprised when their requests for an interview on behalf of Catco and the Daily Planet were granted. They passed the reception desk, received visitors badges and were escorted by a guard to Van Doorns office. The general already awaited them.

"Mr Kent, Miss Danvers, welcome to New York. Have a seat." Van Doorns office was plain, functional in nature. It was no bigger than it needed to be with a few shelves of books. "The Art of War" and other military works, among some basic level science books and an encyclopedia. The General pointed Clark and Kara to a group of seats grouped around a small table, offset by a few meters from his desk, which had no papers on it. Clark concluded that he must have tidied up as they were making their way through the building. He tried to peer into his file cabinet with x-ray vision, but discovered that it was lead shielded. The office also had no window, by accident or intention Clark could not say.

"Thank you for your time." Clark replied as he sat down. "I must say, I am surprised you would talk to us in the first place. More often than not, all we get from military guys is "no comment"".

"Yes." Kara agreed. "Why are you doing this?"

"Well, mostly because you two have the best reputation in your respective outlet. Second, after the Reign incident nobody had made any kind of public on-record statement yet. So that Job will be mine. Shall we get started?"

Clark and Kara were now in professional journalist mode. Kara asked the next question.

"Would you please introduce yourself?"

"Certainly. I am general Peter Van Doorn, commanding officer of an elite international task force. Our two main objectives are repelling extraterrestrial attacks and acquiring, understanding as well as utilizing advanced alien technologies for that exact purpose. We have recruited the best of the best from around the world; scientists, engineers and soldiers."

Kara kept asking, as Clark took notes.

"When did you start?"

"After the daxamite invasion. The UN realized, we are woefully unprepared to repel any serious global invasion launched from space. Our goal is to change that. We have been hard at work reverse engineering their technology. Infantry, spacecraft and surface-to-space weaponry are our main concerns right now."

Clark spoke up next. "Where did you get the Kryptonite?" The general smiled his reply.

"We made it. As you are aware, the world's leading expert on kryptonite is still Lex Luthor. After he got arrested, a lot of his data on anything related to Krypton ended up in my hands. He had some extremely advanced theories that all proved to be true and would have – if published – fast forwarded human technological capabilities by a few decades, if not a century."

"Why did you not publish his data?" Clark asked.

"We are still working on verifying it. We will publish it, as soon as it is all verified and we have developed some basic technologies off of it."

"Superman will probably ask you to give him the Kryptonite as well as your research data. What are you going to do, when he does?"

Kara wanted to add a sentence, but Van Doorn was faster to reply.

"I will tell him "no". We don't understand a fraction of its' properties, besides the effect on kryptonians. As a material, its' mere existence will force us to rewrite a big part of our physics textbooks. A lot of technology that is considered too advanced for humanity at this point may be gated behind us understanding kryptonite and the physics that govern its' properties."

An awkward silence governed the room when Van Doorn stopped speaking.

"Have you ever met Superman? Or Supergirl?" Kara asked this following an instinct, more than reason.

"I have not." The general answered. "And I'm also not looking forward to the experience, most of those who ever meet one of them end in prison, hospital or worse."

Kara and Clark exchanged concerned looks, but if he noticed Van Doorn did not say anything.

"Since I answered all your questions, would you be so kind and answer one of mine?" Neither Kara, nor Clark said anything which he took as yes. "How did you find me? Nobody outside the DEO, my own unit and some very high ranking officials knows who I am, or how I was involved with Reigns attack on National city. Yet here you are, showing up just a couple days later asking questions."

Kara had the presence of mind to answer quickly. "Well, Supergirl told me about it and then I called Clark, who is an old friend of mine."

She did not like the look the general gave her. "Interesting. Now, is that all? I still have work to do, so would you be so kind to excuse me I would appreciate it."

Kara and Clark left the UN building, stopping on the subway stop to talk.

She was the first to break the silence. "So, what do you think about this general Van Doorn?"

Clark thought for a second, before he answered. "I'm not sure what to think of him. He seems sincere. One thing is for sure though: He's not going to hesitate, for good or worse. On the bright side, I don't think he is our enemy. Unless he considers us a danger to the planet."

"So what you are telling me is that we are supposed to just... put up with? Some military nutjob who doesn't trust us and has more nutjobs with kryptonite ammo? No way."

"What do you say we should do, take it by force? Are you out of your mind Kara?"

Kara wanted to snap at her cousin, but thought better of it. He was right. Still, she did not want to just move on with her life.

"Maybe we should talk to him again. On our terms."

"I'd be cautious about that. If he thinks we try to intimidate him, we may just end up doing more harm than good. Look, Kara, I understand that you want to do something. But this is politics. Our powers won't help us on this one. I'm not even sure if there is anything we can do about it."

Kara sighed in frustration. Again.

"So what do you think we should do?"

"Depends. How did they kill Reign anyway?"

"With a kryptonite bullet. I told you that already."

"Yes, but how did they hit the shot? Why did she not try to dodge it?"

"They had a sniper on a roof, about 600 meters away from the place where we ended up fighting. In addition, I don't think that she knew what kryptonite is and that it could kill her. So she focused on the only one she considered a threat: Me. This distraction is what they used to land the shot." "I see." Clark looked at his phone, obviously thinking about something. "Well, time for us to start digging. Lets see what we can find about this general Van Doorn and his unit. You talk to Jimmy and I'll get Lois on the case. She has a talent for finding things others want secret."

"Sounds like a good idea." They embraced, then went on their separate ways.

"I see." Clark looked at his phone, obviously thinking about something. "Well, time for us to start digging. Lets see what we can find about this general Van Doorn and his unit. You talk to Jimmy and I'll get Lois on the case. She has a talent for finding things others want secret."

"Sounds like a good idea." They embraced, then went on their separate ways.


	2. The Dikson incident

When Kara returned to National City, her first order of business was with CatCo. Naturally she went to see Jimmy immediately.

"Hey Kara. How did your interview with this Van Doorn guy go?"  
"If I'm honest, I'm still not sure what to make of him. Clark agreed with me on it, so we need to find out more about him. But that's the difficult part, right? Background info on military people is hard enough to get domestically, but for foreigners? I'm honestly at a loss here." Kara sighed.

"Maybe Cat Grant can help, but I'm not sure how to explain it to her. Or you could call Lena? She has all kinds of business connections around the world."

"Hmm. I'd still have to explain to both of them, how Kara Danvers knows about this guy and why she wants to learn more. Maybe Supergirl can ask Cat a favor. Thank you Jimmy, I think I'll go talk to Cat tonight."

"You do that. I actually have no idea, where she's hanging out these days. But you'll find her I'm sure."

Finding Cat Grants' address turned out to be much easier than Supergirl had anticipated, after all she wasn't trying to hide. As she was flying out to her mansion, Kara played the conversation they were about to have in her mind. No matter how she twisted and turned it, she could only hope that Cat wouldn't ask too many questions. However, asking questions was something the older woman had done for a living over the past decade, so how likely was that?

Supergirl circled the mansion once then landed in the backyard, before gently knocking on Cats' backdoor. She opened, confused, but seemingly happy to see Kara.

"Supergirl! I'm surprised to see you, please come in. What can I do for you?"

"It is a little bit embarrassing, but I'm happy to see you doing well. How has retirement treated you?"

"Not too bad." The older woman looked straight into Karas' eyes. "But you haven't come here, just to exchange pleasantries right?"

"Right" Kara admitted "You were the CEO of a major media company, with outlets all over the world. I have... a bit of an issue on my hands for which I need your help. Or rather, the help of your old journalist network. I had a run in with a high ranking official from a foreign country and I need to know more about this guy."

Cats' eyes seemed to stare directly into Karas' soul and for the first time in years, she did not feel like the mighty heroine Supergirl but more like the little teenage girl growing up on the Danvers farm.

"I think I can help you, if you give me a name and a baseline to start with. Might take a couple days since I need to talk to a lot of people."

"Thanks a lot Cat. Leave a message at CatCo, it will find its' way into my hands when you get your results. The name is Peter Van Doorn, dutch military general currently assigned to the UN."

"How do you know him? And why do you care?" Cat just couldn't resist her instincts to dig deeper, this much was obvious to Kara.

"Remember the Reign incident a week ago? I ran into the guy because of it. There is going to be an article about it, for CatCo and the Daily Planet as well. But I need some background info on this Van Doorn guy and I hope you can get it for me. It would really mean a lot to me."

"I'll see what I can do. You haven't given me much, but you might have given me enough. I'll leave your message at CatCo if I find anything."

When Kara walked into the DEO the next morning, she found Alex, J'onn and Winn grouped near Winns' station staring at the main screen. On it she saw a schematic of earth, with an object traveling in from space.

"What was so urgent you had to call me? Is that a meteor about to crash on our planet?" she asked as she reached her friends.

"No" replied Winn and typed on his keyboard, zooming on the object and switching the abstract radar image to what looked like a telescope view. "I think that's a spaceship, mainly because its' trajectory doesn't fit anything without a drive. But that looks more like a semi-controlled crash than a planned landing. Anyway, judging from it's current speed and heading it will "land"" - and he almost did the quotation marks with his fingers - "somewhere in northern Siberia, well within the arctic area. Polar night started a couple days ago so grab night vision goggles and the warmest coat you can find."

Winn looked at J'onn, doubtfully. "That is, IF you want to go there. Which I wouldn't advise, at all."

J'onn just kept staring at the map, which still covered the main screen. He then turned his head to look at Kara and Alex. "You two, I want both of you on that mysterious object. Find out what it is and report back to me."

Alex replied with a confused voice. "How do we get to Russia? I doubt Supergirl should just fly us there and I don't recall the DEO having any kind of transportation besides your ship."

"I'll arrange something, leave that to me. Probably a plane to a town near the crash site, then you'll need to use a ground vehicle."

Kara looked at the map, then spoke quietly, more to herself than others. "Polar Night? What does that mean?"

Winn must have heard her, because he replied near instantly. "Due to the way the earth rotates around the sun, near the poles a night can last up to six months. I'd recommend a good long sunbath before you depart, if I were you."

"It is decided then. Agent Danvers, Supergirl, go downstairs and gear up. I'll have a car waiting, your first stop will be National City Airport. I'll make some calls to get you an airforce machine to Norilsk, in Russia. It's the only airport in the region. From there, you should take the train to Dudinka since it is the biggest sea port. Then you need to head north, following the river and resupplying along the way. When you reach Dikson on the northern coast, the ship will have crashed – or landed and I can give you the exact location." As J'onn explained, everyone was silent until he finished. Then, Kara spoke up.

"Why do we not just send you and me, J'onn, and fly there? It would be so much easier than the journey you just described."

"Because one of us needs to stay here and keep an eye on National City and the DEO. And I won't send you out without someone to watch your back. So it is you and Agent Danvers."

"Still, I think it would be so much faster if I just flew us there. I can easily carry Alex and all the gear she'll need."

J'onn sighed. "Alright, fine. Agent Danvers, go and gear up. Agent Schott, go and help them. I'll get the Russians on the phone so they won't try to shoot you two down when you enter their airspace. Just, both of you, be careful out there."

 **At the same time, New York, General Van Doorns office**

"Mister Secretary, we have an unknown object about to crash down in northern Siberia. The Susanoo is on site and ready to deploy a reconnaissance team. Do you wish us to proceed?" General Van Doorn tried to read the body language of the man he was talking to, but it was really hard if you only saw a low resolution image on a video screen. He had to "play by ear", as many diplomats and radio operators called it. The Russian minister of foreign affairs briefly looked at something else in his room, before he returned his attention to Van Doorn.

"Nyet. The Americans just sent us a request to allow two of their DEO agents into the country, to investigate the crashsite. The Kremlin wants a first hand report of their capabilities, so we'll grant their request. I still want your people in range, just in case."

Van Doorn sighed, but Russia still was the third biggest contributer to his unit, second only to China and the European Union. So he really had no choice but to do as minister Antonov requested. "Well, I wish you the best of luck then, minister Antonov. I'll forward your request to the Susanoo's commander. Let's see what the Americans can do."

"Thank you, general. Do swidanja."

"Do swidanja, minister."

As the call ended, Van Doorn started the next. "Central, geht the Susanoo on the phone." A few seconds later, a new voice was on the line.

"New York, secure."

"Susanoo, secure."

"Commander, this is general Van Doorn. I have an update on your deployment to the Kara Sea. The Russians want you to watch and monitor, American assets will take care of the unknown object. Just gather as much data as you can, without getting too close."  
"Sir, what if it is hostile?"

"Let the Americans handle it. If they are sending who I think they are, they'll be more than capable of looking after themselves. You are authorized to intervene, should the American assets prove insufficient."  
"Understood."  
"Good. Keep me updated, I'm available 24/7. New York, out."  
"Susanoo, out."

Gearing up just two agents took longer than Winn, Alex or even Kara thought. "Alright, you need nightvision and equipment handling the cold. You'll be dealing with tempreratures of -15°C on average, even lower I think because of the polar night." Winn muttered more into his tablet than talking to Kara and Alex. "Are you SURE you don't want a _different_ outfit Supergirl?"

"No thanks, I can keep myself warm just fine. Besides, it won't be for long."

"Suit yourself then." He went to a locker, grabbed a heavy looking jacket and handed it to Alex. "This is something I came up with, a uniform meant for extremely cold conditions. Bullet resistant up to a .50 cal round with improved insulation. A matching pair of pants is here as well. Take this as well, or your face will be the first thing to freeze." He handed Alex a pair of arctic goggles and a helmet with what looked like fur lining. "And don't be surprised if temperatures drop to -30 or even lower; this is the coldest time of the year." He looked at Kara again, doubtfully. "Are you SURE you don't want at least a second jacket? Your costume wasn't designed with cold weather in mind."

Kara sighed. "I TOLD you, I can keep myself warm just with my powers."

"Suit yourself then. Alex, take this." He handed Alex a block, about the size of a big box of matches. "A little something I cooked up in the lab. High density hydro-carbon fuel. Burns for 5 hours if lit and should keep you warm. Just in case, better to have and not need than to need and not have." This time, Alex was the one to ask a question.

"Why do you give us so much stuff? I'll have a hard time carrying all this."

"Because, if anything goes wrong you'll have to survive at least two if not three days on your own before we can mount any kind of rescue. And because I don't want my friends to freeze to death." He handed Alex a last suitcase. "Those are some special purpose weapons for cold weather and that's the last of it. Stay safe guys."

Kara, Winn and Alex left the armory and returned to the main conference room. J'onn already awaited them. "Are you ready?" he aksed.

"As ready as we'll ever be I think." Kara replied. "Do we have a location?"

"Yes we do. 250 kilometers north-east of Dikson, just shy of the coastline. Not that it matters, you won't even see where the land ends and the sea begins because it is permanently covered in ice. Agent Danvers, you take the map. Good luck to both of you."

"Well, here goes nothing then. Hold on tight Alex." The sisters walked onto a balcony, where a visibly uncomfortable Alex embraced Kara. They took off and began the flight to Russia.

About 24 hours later, they reached their destination. Since she carried Alex, Kara had decided to not fly at supersonic speed and they even had to make two short rests. Clinging to her kryptonian adoptive sister was definitely not Alex' favorite way of long-distance travel.

Winn had not exaggerated, the polar night was in full effect making it pitch black with only stars providing limited light. Even Kara could feel the cold and rubbed her hands over her arms. Clad in Winns' cold weather clothes, Alex called a map on her PDA. "According to this, we are 5 kilometers away from the crash site. Should take me about 2 hours to get there on foot. And before you ask, no, we are not flying. It will be easier to get a good look without revealing our position if we stay on the ground. Our satellites haven't picked up any heat signature or activity at the crash site, but the next overpass is not due for a few hours.

"Commander, this is sensors. We have a small yet very fast flying object approaching our area of operations. Too fast for a bird and too small for a plane. Can't be a missile either, too cold for that."

"I see. So the general was right. Get our flying eye up and get ready to dive to periscope depth. Keep tabs on that small object and the crash site, I want hourly updates." Commander Nakajima got up from his seat on the Susanoo bridge and walked to his sensor officer. "What's the weather forecast? Are flight operations doable?"

"We have a blizzard coming at us. Probably 4-5 hours left before it hits the crash site. Our drones can fly high enough to stay above it, but the Skyrangers will have to remain grounded. We will probably not be able to see anything going on at the surface, while the blizzard lasts."

"I see. You have your orders, I'll be in my ready room."

Since the early days of its' inception, to all members of the Extraterrestrial combat project, or XCOM as most insiders called it, a central question had been where to locate a base and other stationary, yet necessary assets to fight off a space borne invasion. With the level of currently available technology, air and space were out of the question. Underground was considered, yet rejected because it had a distinct weakness: vulnerability to ground based attacks. When early research on the daxamite technology led to a breakthrough in metallurgy, allowing to produce a new alloy both lighter and more resilient than any steel, a third solution was obvious: Under water. First, the Susanoo was developed and built by a japanese-chinese-korean cooperative project. It was based on an old japanese design from the second world war, the I-400 class, and intended to serve as a mobile command center and base of operations for elite strike teams. It housed custom built aircraft, called skyrangers, and an assortment of UAVs to provide reconnaissance, limited close air support and transportation for its strike teams. While it's combat capabilities against other seaborne targets were limited to only 4 torpedo tubes, its stealthiness as well as the capabilities of its communications and sensor arrays were unmatched by any other vessel in service around the world.

While the UAVs could be launched submerged, the Susanoo would have to surface in order to deploy one of the Skyrangers. As it gained altitude, the small drone craft quickly proceeded toward the crashsite, its' high powered sensors transmitting many details back to the submarine.

A pair of binoculars in hand, Alex and Kara lay on a small hill just 500 meters away from what now definitely looked like a crashed spaceship. "Does the design ring any bells Kara?"

"No, not really. Besides, I've spent most of my life on this planet. You probably know more about alien tech at this point than I do."

"Fair point. Looks a bit similar to what the daxamites were flying around in, are you sure it is not kryptonian?"

"Doesn't look like anything from Krypton I have seen thus far."

Alex activated her satellite phone and livestreamed the things she saw around the globe into DEO headquarters.

"J'onn, Winn, can you tell me what I'm looking at here?"

Thousands of kilometers away, Winn leaned in closer to his screen trying to make out more details.

"I honestly have no clue, the night vision filter doesn't exactly make it easier. As far as I can tell, it doesn't emit any kind of light or radiation. Not even infrared, which means it is either perfectly insulated or has no heat source. How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine." Alex had to lower her voice, while Kara still looked at the crashsite. "But Supergirl is really uncomfortable, the cold combined with the lack of sunlight is taking its' toll on her."

"J'onn said it is your decision how close you want to get, but try to look for survivors and establish the ships' point of origin and its' purpose."

"From what I can say so far, it seems to be as big as the pod Kara arrived in, maybe a bit smaller. We'll try to get a closer look now. If you haven't heard from us in an hour, please get the cavalry going."

"Will do. Good luck you two."

The two sisters continued watching the crashsite, but as they did not see – or hear – anyone who might have piloted the craft, they decided to approach. Alex kept her distance, but Kara went close enough to the craft to touch it. As she brushed a bit of snow off of the outer hull, she revealed a silvery and perfectly smooth surface. It was clearly designed for spaceflight as it had no visible wings or similar things, that might have given it the ability to stay aloft in an atmosphere. Kara continued to brush of snow and suddenly, she heard a hiss. Almost like air being sucked in – or out of something.

She turned to look for the source, and was greeted with a blast of pure energy hitting her square in the chest. The force, combined with the surprise, knocked Supergirl to her back but would likely have killed a human. Kara looked at the craft, which was now mounting a small turret, and focused her heat vision into it. The turret disintegrated as the metal turned into gas.

It was a much stronger blast than Kara had anticipated and intended. At least, no other turret was deployed. Alex came running immediately, a worried look on her face. "Supergirl! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thank you. What was that?"

"No idea, maybe some kind of automated defense mechanism to prevent others from tampering with it – whatever it is."

"I can't see anything that looks like an access door. It is probably unmanned, like a little probe. The design looks very kryptonian, but I can't remember anything like it."

"Strange. Anyway – are you sure you are alright? You look kinda tired; like someone who just ran two marathons and then some."  
"I'm okay, just the cold." Kara shivered and crossed her arms in front of her body. "I really should have taken Winn up on his offer to make me a cold weather costume."

She then turned her attention towards what she now assumed to be a probe of some kind and focused on her X-Ray vision in an efford to look inside.

Or rather, she tried to. Nothing happened, almost as if she had lost her powers. Then Supergirl was hit with the full force of the Russian winter during polar night. It was COLD. Exhaustion hit her like a fully loaded cargo train as Kara sunk into the snow.


	3. Ten thousand meters below sea

When Kara woke up, Alex looked very worried. Hunched over her adoptive sister and clad in her jacket, Supergirl felt almost warm. She noticed a flicker, almost like a campfire.  
"What... what happened? I feel so – dizzy."  
"Oh Kara, thank the heavens you are awake. I was really worried about you. How are you feeling?"  
"So tired, I feel like I could just sleep forever and never wake up. You know what, wake me up when something interesting happens."  
"No no no NO stay with me Kara!" Alex slapped Supergirl in the face. "You can't sleep now. Not in this situation."  
"Huh? Okay okay, you didn't have to hit me. Can't a girl take a nap these days?"  
"There is a time for napping, it just isn't now. How are you feeling?"  
"Cold. And tired. I haven't been this tired in forever."  
"Sounds about right. You just collapsed, outside the spaceship, or whatever this thing was that shot at you. Seems like the exhaustion got the better of you."  
Kara blinked, then took a look at her surroundings. "Where are we?"  
Alex smiled with a sense of pride. "In a little shelter I dug for us in the snow. Winns' little supply box included a spade and some more of those fuelboxes he showed us in the armory. A few basics of igloo building via satphone and voilá, we'll be able to wait out the blizzard here until rescue comes. Which should be in an hour or so."  
"Where's J'onn? Why isn't he coming?"  
"You need proper medical attention Kara, your powers are all but gone and you suffer from severe hypothermia. No, J'onn can't do anything for us even though we both want him to. Besides, he wouldn't be able to get here faster than anyone else even though he can fly almost as fast as you."  
"Then who else is coming Alex?"  
Alex took a deep breath, before telling her sister. "An organization officially known as the XCOM project. Van Doorns people. It seems they had a team near us and even relayed my signal to National City."  
"You gotta be kidding me."  
"I'm afraid I'm not. They claim to have all the help we need right now and frankly, we need a lot of it. So, make yourself as comfortable as you can. As soon as the storm ends, we'll be headed for a sunny place I hope. I've seen enough ice to last me a lifetime."  
"So..." Kara said with a weary voice. "You'll not join us when Lena and I take Ruby out for ice cream next week?"  
Alex couldn't help but smile. "Okay, I might have been premature on that statement." At least her humor started to come back, she thought.

Around 4 hours and another fuel box later, the storm ended. Alex and Kara left their improvised, yet surprisingly effective, storm shelter and searched the sky. It didn't take long to spot a low flying craft approaching the crash site. The pilot must have seen them, because the craft touched down only about 50 meters away from their shelter. The big turbofan engines integrated into the wings whirled up a lot of snow, but it quickly settled. Eight humanoid figures, which upon closer inspection were just people in heavy armor unlike anything Alex had ever seen before. They moved quickly and quietly, due to either long training or an internal radio communication Alex was unable to hear. Two soldiers escorted the sisters into the aircraft, which immediately took off. Inside, a woman greeted them.  
"Hello, I am doctor Shivani Bose, field medic assigned to Strike one." She handed heavy blankets to Alex and Kara, then poured a steaming beverage into two cups. "Drink up. You have been in the middle of a blizzard, you need a bit of warmth. I'm surprised you are still walking, to be honest."  
Alex let out a slight smile. "We were – in a way – prepared for that kind of stuff."  
"Well" Dr. Bose said as she took Alex temperature in her ear "you owe your quartermaster a big one then, this could have gone a lot worse." She looked at both of them. "I want to keep you two in the infirmary while you are on board, just to make sure I haven't overlooked anything. But from what I can tell, you have nothing a few days rest and good meals won't fix." Alex sneezed in response.  
She then took off one boot and a glove from both sisters. "No frostbite. You got really lucky this time."

They must have been flying for about an hour, when a new voice came over the crafts intercom. "This is Big Sky, we are approaching the dock. Please prepare for landing." Dr Bose made sure Alex and Kara were properly buckled in, before taking her own seat. A notable shaking went through the aircraft as it landed. When the back door opened again, Kara and Alex were greeted by a friendly looking Japanese man in a light blue and black uniform. "Supergirl, Agent Danvers, welcome aboard the Susanoo. I am Commander Nakajima." The ambient red light made it hard to disdain the color of his uniform, but Alex was sure about the light blue. Kara, however, seemed visibly upset. "Why the red light?"  
"It is just slightly after midnight, zulu time. We got you on board in the middle of the night shift. Red light is the best compromise between the waking crews' need to see and the resting crews' need to, well, rest. We'll go back to normal lighting in" he looked at his watch "just under 6 hours when the day shift starts."  
Alex and Kara were both too tired to talk, so they just let themselves be escorted into the infirmary, where they soon sunk into a deep and dreamless slumber.

When Kara awoke, she already felt a lot better. The lights in the infirmary were dimmed, but regular. She raised her upper torso and realised she was still in her costume. To her right, in a second bed and with hers the only one occupied, she saw Alex still asleep and wearing what looked like a hospital pajama. She yawned audibly and stretched.  
The door opened and the woman, Dr Bose, they had met earlier, peered into the room. She put a finger to her lips, signaling for Kara to quiet and waved her out of the room. She followed into what looked like an exam room in a regular hospital.

"How are you feeling, Supergirl?"  
"Not too bad, still a bit tired, but a lot better. To be honest, I slept like a baby."  
"Good to hear that. The commander wants to talk to you, you already met him when you got off the skyranger. Are you feeling up for it?"  
"Yes, I think I do."  
"Good. I'll ask a sailor to escort you to his quarters. It's 1500 now, so you should find him there."  
Kara just now realised, Dr Bose was wearing a small headset as she now spoke. "Bose to Nakajima, Supergirl is awake now. Do you still want to talk to her?" A short break, as she listened to the other person on the line.  
"Yes, I'll send her up with someone."  
She opened a second door leading out to some kind of hallway, before speaking to a person Kara couldn't see. "Alekseev, please escort Supergirl to the commanders' quarters."

The man escorted Kara through a very confusing layout of hallways that were quite busy with all kinds of people going about their business. She had rarely seen so many different faces outside maybe an airport, the Susanoos' crew had to come from all over the world. She was also used to turn heads, at least when walking around as Supergirl. But not this time, nobody seemed to know who she was and if they did, they didn't pay any attention to her. It was comforting on one hand, but it also did severe damage to her vanity. Kara hated to admit it, even to herself, but the attention that came with being a heroine had grown on her. Especially now, that she wasn't getting any of it.

They reached the commanders' quarters and Kara was frustrated. While her guide spoke fluent English, he was obviously not interested in conversing with her, keeping his answers as short as etiquette allowed. She was asked in just after the first knock.  
"Welcome, Supergirl. Please, have a seat."  
"Good.. afternoon Commander? Without the sun, it's hard to tell the time of the day."  
"Afternoon is correct. And you'll get used to it. Or at least, for the couple days it will take us to reach Boston where we intend to drop you and your sister off. Director J'onnz knows the when and where, he should arrange for your travel to National City."  
That was good news, as far as Kara was concerned.  
"What happened with the unknown ship?" Nakajima looked at her, as if trying to guess her reaction, before he replied.  
"We secured the crashsite and loaded it into one of our cargo bays. After we drop you off in Boston, we will bring it to a different place to fully analyze it. Maybe we can learn where it is from and why it is here."  
"So how are you going to get it to the DEO?" Kara looked at the man with a curious eye, but he just looked confused for a second before regaining his composure.  
"We aren't. The ship will be brought to a place that I won't disclose to you, talk to the General if you want to get your hands on it. My orders are very clear on this."  
Kara looked at him, dumbfounded. But she should have expected that, as Van Doorn had said something similar when she and Clark interviewed him, asking about his Kryptonite supply.  
"Oh well, I guess I should go and visit Agent Danvers then. How long until we rach Boston?"  
"Another day I think. We'll surface a few kilometers away from the city and fly you two into the airport."  
"Thank you for the ride then, I guess."  
"You are welcome. Say hi to Agent Danvers."

When Kara returned to the infirmary, Alex had woken up and changed into her uniform. She was eating what looked like boiled vegetables, potatoes and a piece of meat Kara could not identify.  
"Hey, good to see you awake. How's the food?"  
"Crappy, if I'm honest. Overcooked vegetables and the meat is really tough."  
"Well, looks like we'll only have to endure it for another day. They'll drop us off in Boston, where we are supposed to arrive soon."  
"Wow, only 3 days from the Kara sea to Boston? This thing is _fast_. On a different note" and she lowered her voice significantly for the next sentence "how are your powers coming along? Have you had any chance to try something?"  
"Yes, I tried taking a look around with my x-ray vision. No luck, it seems artificial light doesn't recharge me the same way sunlight does or the special bulbs we have at the DEO. I have seen through one or two walls, but especially the engine room has heavy lead shielding. And since we are aboard a submarine, I might not even be able to use any of my powers before we reach Boston."  
"Well, this is an issue. If anything goes wrong, we might have a tough time defending ourselves. Have you seen the weapons and armor they used at the crashsite?"  
"Yes, to be honest I've never seen anything like it on this planet. Any idea what the deal with it is? And those rifles looked _nasty_."  
"Well the armor seems to be something powered, with an exoskeleton. The US military has been working on something similar, but it is far from ready for mass production. I'd be really curious about the specifics. Can't say anything about the rifles, but I doubt they are conventional ballistics. Maybe magnetic, or even energy based."  
"So basically, we are stuck on a submarine with a bunch of elite soldiers with superior equipment, without my powers? And where is your equipment?"  
"Dr Bose said it is in the armory. I guess at this point, we can't do anything but wait for our arrival in Boston. Then we return to National City to regroup and talk to the others. I really don't want that ship in the hands of Van Doorns people. Don't ask me why, but I have a really bad feeling about this."  
"Agreed. But right now, there isn't much we can do about it."

One and a half days after this conversation, Kara and Alex left the Skyranger at Boston international airport. As the aircraft flew off, Kara looked at the sun, closed her eyes and took a long deep breath.  
"You know Alex, I really hated that submarine. I'm so happy to see the sun again, finally I'm no longer tired." While Kara sunbathed, Alex was already on her phone.  
"Winn, it's me Alex. No time to explain, just listen. A military aircraft just took off Boston International, I need you to use our satellites to track it."  
"Okay, I'm looking at it right now. Yeah I can see the exhaust trail clearly. If not for the heat signature I'd have no idea it was there. I'll keep you updated, tracking it now."  
"Great. It's going to land on a submarine, we need to know where it is going next."  
"Do you have any idea how difficult it is to track a submarine via satellite? Especially if it was built to be stealthy, the Russians and our own navy tried it during the cold war, but to no avail. If it doesn't emit any kind of heat or radioactive signature our satellites can pick up, it will be almost impossible."  
"I wouldn't ask you if it was easy."  
"Fair enough. Have you asked Supergirl if she can track them with her x-ray vision?"  
"She is still recovering, Russia took its' toll on her. But I'll ask her."  
"Well satellite has locked onto the plane, but I haven't picked up the submarine. Wait, hang on."

Alex could hear Winn typing something on his keyboard.

"I can see the submarine, but honestly, I would have no idea it was there if the camera wasn't directly pointing at it. Wow, this thing is big. Bigger than a typhoon, from what I can tell. Well this is interesting, it seems to have some kind of hangar bay where the missiles would be on a regular sub. That VTOL looks interesting.  
Scanners are running, I think I can tell you something about its' capabilities by the time you get back here."  
"Winn, listen, this is important. I need to know where it is going. The Dikson UFO is still on board, we need to know where they bring it. And what they do with it."  
"Well let's see, according to the distance between the submarine and the airport, their base can be... crap. Pretty much anywhere, at least if those aircraft can carry the object."  
"They definitely can. We have seen them do it."  
"Then we need to approach it differently. A submarine of this size needs to be supplied somehow, with food, water and spare parts. I wonder if they use a dry dock in an existing military base or purpose-built their own place somewhere."  
"Interesting proposition. Their supply chain, if we can find it, may be the best way we have to track them down."  
"But we need to find them first, considering I can barely pick them up even surfaced, tracking them underwater will be all but impossible."  
"Hang on, Supergirl just walked up to me." Alex put her phone off, before talking to Kara. "How are you feeling?"  
"A lot better now." She flew a couple meters up and down. "What are you thinking?"  
"Do you think you can track the Susanoo with your x-ray vision? Find out where its' home base is."  
"I can try. Now that I've gotten a bit of sunlight, my powers have returned. I'm going, Winn keep me posted."

Kara took Alex radio, plugged it into her ear and flew off. Guided by Winn she reached the Susanoo just in time to see the last of it submerge. Switching to x-ray vision, she could clearly see the outline of its' metal hull and, more clearly the heavy lead shielding in the engine room. As it sunk below the surface, Kara kept her distance, but the lead shielding worked to her advantage. It was the only thing in the far ocean she could NOT see through.  
"Winn, this is Supergirl. It looks like they are heading north again. If I had to guess they are planning to pass under the ice of the arctic sea again. Probably through the North-west passage, between Greenland and the Coast of Canada. Their destination is probably somewhere in the pacific, which I think will take them a few days to reach, at the very least."  
Winn typed a bit more, then he replied. "Pacific? You know what is in the Pacific, not far off the Japanese coast?"  
"Enlighten me."  
"The Mariana Trench, the deepest underwater trench in the world. 10000 meters below the surface, probably the best place to go to inconvenience a space based invader. The alloy making up the Susanoos' hull allows them to dive just as deep, probably even deeper."  
"Do you think this is where they built their base? How are we ever going to get the ship back once it gets there?"  
"Probably not at all, at least without their consent. Supergirl, I know this sounds strange, but listen closely. You need to come back, we settle this through diplomatic channels."

Kara sighed. "Well, looks like it. I'm still going to check the Mariana Trench tomorrow, just to make sure your guess was right."  
"My satellites are running a scan right now, but the water is way too deep. So if it really is there, you have to find it.

About a day later, Kara flew into the Mariana Trench and, sure enough, with her x-ray vision she quickly discovered a big complex made of metal, located at the bottom of the trench. She could also see the Susanoo, docked to one of the buildings, probably taking on supplies and switching out the crew.  
Supergirl returned to National City, where she shared her findings with Alex, J'onn and Winn.  
"Well, that certainly puts the Dikson UFO clearly out of our reach, unless they give it to us." was Winns' comment. "Which, at this point, I don't see happening."  
He gave Kara a look. "That means, you and Clark have to talk to General Van Doorn. Tell him, why he should give you the ship instead of letting his own people disect it."  
"Well, that's the hard part then. I have no clue how to convince him of that. I just have a bad feeling about this whole thing."


	4. The lost City

The next day, Kara returned to CatCo and was greeted by Jimmy, who handed her an envelope with a handwritten note and a flash drive. The note was written by Cat Grant and explained she had used her contacts to find the dossiers of not only the general, but other key personnel at the XCOM project. The drive contained 4 files, named after the people who were described. She opened the first one, named Van Doorn.  
As expected, she found a big number of details on general Van Doorns personal and professional biography. Born in the Netherlands, only one marriage. Records indicated a divorce battle that would put any soap opera to shame. He focused entirely on his career afterwards and earned the promotion to general. But even Cat Grant seemed unable to dig up anything that happened after the general got transferred to a classified UN taskforce.  
She looked at the second file, belonging to colonel John Bradford. Before he joined with XCOM, he was a senior officer in the US Marine Corps. She skimmed the file and noticed a very similar story to Van Doorns, a divorce battle that seemed to have taken a major tax on his physical and financial resources.  
The third file was another foreigner, Raymond Shen. Listed as chief engineer, he graduated from Oxford with distinction. Unlike the other two, he was still married. His wife lived in the UK with their little daughter Lily. Kara briefly wondered how their relationship dealt with the strain a highly classified job must put on it, but then moved on to the final file.  
The last file also belonged to the only woman in XCOMs senior leadership, Dr Moira Vahlen from Germany. After she graduated – with distinction, of course – she completed her PhD in biology with a focus on taxonomy and classification. Strangely enough, she went back into studying and picked up a second degree in medicine, but no PhD. The records listed her as chief scientist, but no details of her tasks.

Kara then took her phone and called Clark, bringing him up to speed on the UFO that had crashed in Russia.  
"So, what do you think? I'm sure that the design is kryptonian, but it must be something new. Maybe built in the days before we both left the planet. But I have no idea what it is."  
"Well, if I got it into my little place, I'd be able to analyze it. Now that you mention it, I really want to check this thing out. If it really is from Krypton, we need to know when it was built, launched, and how it got here."  
"Hmm, I know Van Doorns private adress in New York. Do you want to pay him a visit?"  
"With this ship in play, I think I do. We should meet near New York, then fly there."

It was already dark, when general Van Doorn returned to his apartment after a long day at the office. Now, in the comfort and privacy of his home he allowed himself a shot of whiskey and loosened his tie. Then, suddenly, his phone rang. Secured line, had to be important.  
"General Van Doorn, go ahead."  
"General, this is Bradford. Our New York division just picked up two small supersonic objects heading towards the city. No exhaust trail, no plane either."  
"Colonel, move everyone to yellow alert immediately. Get a strike team here as soon as you can."  
"Sir yes sir. Be advised though, the strike team will take at least two hours to gear up and get to you. They will be flying across the country. You have two hours until contact and at least 4, until the strike team can reach you."  
"Got it. I'll activate my tracker now. If I haven't called in 3 hours after contact, execute war plan green. Also, make sure to report to the UN security council."  
"Will do. Good luck, general."  
"Thanks. Van Doorn out."

And, just as Central had predicted, two hours later two figures descended on Van Doorns balcony. He had never met Superman, nor Supergirl, in person as far as he was aware. At least not before running into her at the DEO headquarters. Now, as they were standing outside, they looked completely ordinary save for the iconic blue and red outfits, with the famous sign that reminded him so much of the letter "S", but meant something else entirely. He strengthened his stance and put his shoulders back, before opening the balcony door.  
"Well, I guess it was only a question of time until we'd meet again. Please, come in."  
For now, he decided that the host and gentleman approach was the most likely one to get him out of this, alive. They followed him into the apartment, took a short look around, then focused on him.  
"Hello. I am Kal-el of Krypton, this is my cousin Kara Zor-el."  
"I am general Peter Van Doorn, commanding officer of the XCOM project. What is so important that you just have to show up at my doorstep, at this late hour?"  
"I heard that you recovered a kryptonian starship and that you are manufacturing kryptonite, based on Lex Luthors research data. I ask you to give me the starship, the kryptonite, it's manufacturing equipment and Lex' data."  
"Or else?"

Both Superman and Supergirl were dumbfounded by this answer. Even though Van Doorn had said something similar when they interviewed him as Kara and Clark, hearing it again, now, was something else. She could not help but admire his pokerface because he had not moved a muscle on it, but her superhearing picked up his now greatly increased heart rate. She knew her cousin well enough to guess that his answer must have been just as confusing to him as it was to her.  
"What do you mean, or else?"  
"I mean, what are you going to do if I refuse? What you call a spaceship is as far as our initial analysis shows nothing more than a simple scouting probe. But it is still equipped with an FTL drive and may just give us enough understanding to develop and build our own."  
An eerie silence governed the room. Both Kara and Clark were baffled by the implications of Van Doorns answer to their reasonable request.  
"But" the general continued "I am not unreasonable. I am willing to separate from the probe after we crack the flight data recorder. What are you offering me in return?"  
"What do you want? I don't have anything."  
"I think you do. I'm aware that you have a little bit of a hideout far up north. Probably full of kryptonian technology. Do you have a computer, or similar device?"  
"Yes."  
"Then, what I want is a copy of the hard drive, or whatever the kryptonian equivalent is. With all the data that is on it. Any bit you have on science, engineering and history."  
"No, completely unacceptable. This – drive, if that is what you want to call it – contains advanced technology for which humanity is simply not ready. The potential for destruction is unparalleled."  
"Then we will not reach an agreement I think. Now, if you would excuse me please, a man has to sleep."  
Kara, who had been rather silent, now spoke. "You know, we have a lot of stuff at the DEO. We might let you take a look at some of it."  
Van Doorn just let out a dry laugh. "I have a very good relationship with the president of the United States. Trust me, if there was anything in the DEO my science team wanted, we would have it now. Your cousin's stash of alien technology is the only one we can't just go in and grab whatever we need. But even without it, the artifacts we have already and the probe will probably take more than a lifetime to decipher and understand. It is" and he focused his look first on Kara, then on Clark, "the only thing of value to the cause that we are pursuing."  
Clark decided to say something. "What cause would that be?"  
"We are XCOM. We are the last line of defense this world has against an extraterrestrial attack. And as I already told you, we need to upgrade the tech we have first to be on par with what a spacefaring civilization might throw at us."  
"And are you aware of the consequences? Technological progress without social progress will lead to destruction."  
"I am, that's why XCOM is highly classified and hidden from most people. Besides, who are you to decide what is in humanities best interest? Or which technology this planet should – and should not – have?"  
Kara replied "What gives you that authority?"  
"Me? Nothing. But I answer to the UN and thus, the elected leaders of our planet. So if anyone is justified in making that decision, it is them. Besides, who do you answer to? Who holds you accountable for the consequences of your decisions and actions?"

Van Doorn paused, as if thinking about something. Then he addressed Superman directly. "You know, when you arrived we thought you were the last of what remained of your planet. Then" and he turned to Supergirl "you show up. Then the third kryptonian, Reign. Now this probe. It makes me wonder, how much of your home planet is still out there. And whether or not it is hostile."  
None of the kryptonians said anything in response. Neither of them could deny that the general had a point. Both of them still wondered whether he was to be considered a friend or a foe. This evenings conversation had brought out the simple, yet unsatisfying truth: It depended entirely on their actions, not words, if Van Doorn and his people would be their enemies. Superman heard that argument before, that there was nobody outside his own conscience holding him accountable. And just like before, nobody had come to a satisfying conclusion. That was not about to change.  
"Now, would you be so kind and let me get some rest?" Van Doorn asked. "I have work to do tomorrow."

Kara and Clark left New York, unsatisfied. Showing up in person had not had the effect on Van Doorn they were used to. Kara realized that the man must have feared for his very life and she couldn't help but admire his resolve. Only very few people had ever said no to her or Clark. After flying for an hour, she gave her cousin a good bye hug before she returned to National City.  
When she returned to the DEO, Alex J'onn and Winn were staring intensely at a monitor, talking and gesturing.  
"Hello Supergirl" Winn said "Good to see you. I have something to show you." With that, he hit a button and a large asteroid appeared on screen.  
"Yes, that is definitely a giant space rock. What's so special about it?"  
"Well, it emits a special kind of radiation. Something I have never seen before, that's what caught my attention in the first place. You see, ordinary "space rock" doesn't emit any kind of radiation, especially not this kind. So" and he typed on his tablet "I ran a couple scans." The asteroid received a green filter, showing a distinct glow of white particles in an area concentrated near the bottom. "This is a neutrino filter, any neutrino radiation shows up as white dot. See this pattern? It looks artificial to me. So I ran some extra calculations and put a positron filter with reversed polarity over the image and voilá."

The image of the asteroid changed, making a notable pattern towards gray. But, in the same place Winn had just shown the neutrino radiation, a city appeared. A city that looked very familiar to Kara.  
"Impossible! That's Argo." She blurted out.  
"Argo?" Came three confused responses at the same time.  
"I think that asteroid is a big piece of Krypton and the city, well, is one of the biggest kryptonian cities. My parents lived there, my mom was even on the city council. I can't believe that the city could have survived. How far away are they?"  
Winn looked at his main computer station, before answering. "I'd say about 8 light years. Judging from their current trajectory, they will rendezvous earth in... well never. They don't seem to have an FTL capable drive. Their movement seems to be influenced mostly by the gravity of stellar masses nearby, at least I haven't seen anything that looks like any kind of drive.

 **Argo City council, 8 light years away from earth**

The city high council was in session and it had not changed much since the destruction of Krypton. Alura Zor-El took her seat. Ever since Selena had put the Rebuilding Law into vote, which was then passed, she did not like the direction her city was headed. But the law had given people hope and they had been able to hang on, scavenging asteroid fields and uninhabited planets for minerals to fuel their farms and power plants with. The scouting probes they had built and sent out have proven invaluable, Alura had to admit. Now, one had gone missing. She had a guess where but so far, decided not to say anything.  
"The probes automated defense system activated and it was able to send off a final bit of footage. It will take another cycle for the signal – and the data – to reach us, but in the mean time we should evaluate and make a decision on what we know thus far." The man speaking now was Kazim, a nobody without any relation to the noble houses, but he had risen to a position on the high council for his proficiency with machines and tools, holding his title as chief technological officer.  
On the center of the chamber, a holographic map opened based on the probes last known position. It was a system with a yellow star, orbited by nine planetary bodies.  
"This solar system would be the perfect fit for rebuilding Krypton and our civilization. It has all the resources we could ask for. A very mineral rich asteroid belt lies between the fourth and fifth planet, abundant carbon can be found on the second planet.  
But – and here is the best part – if we are to go through with our rebuilding efforts, the third planet really has the one resource we can't easily get: Labour. I have detected signs of a primitive, yet sentient species that will certainly be glad to receive limited technological enlightenment in return for lending a hand."  
Selena zoomed the third planet in, a blue ball of light in the black of space. "Military capacities?"  
"Insignificant. We would have instant space superiority, I have not detected any significant surface-to-space weaponry. They have one tiny unarmed station in orbit and no presence on the other planets, besides a few primitive rovers."  
"I'll put it to vote then. Those in favor of annexing the third planet to be the foundation of the new kryptonian empire, raise your hands."  
She looked around the room and met Alruas gaze, disapproval in her eyes. "It is decided then that this planet shall become new Krypton, with an eight to one vote in favor. Kazim, I'll leave it to you to get our drive up again. The city must survive."  
"The city must survive." came the reply from the other council members.

Alura left the chamber later, disappointed in her fellow councilmembers. When had they abandoned their values and decided that invading a primitive species was an ethical thing to do? Then again, she remembered the hardships their city had to deal with over the last decades with their food and power supplies only recently satbilizing. Survival had taken a harsh toll on the city with difficult decisions needing to be made. Their ideals had suffered when confronted with the reality of being adrift in space.

 **Poseidon Base, Earth, 10000m below sea level**

Bradford could not believe what he heard. "Say that again, Doctor, please just to make sure I heard you right?"  
"Very well." Dr Moira Vahlen, XCOMs chief scientists, answered. "We were able to crack into the unknown spaceships flight computer and translate a lot of its' data. Now, we confirmed our initial suspicion when we cross-referenced it with scans we made of Supermans' pod. The designs, while not identical, are similar enough to conclude they must have been built by the same people. Or at least, the same civilization. As you know, based on trajectory data from Superman, Supergirl and a few kryponite rich meteors we have been able to pinpoint Kryptons' location. However, we estimate the ability of this probe to travel 10 to 15 light years at the most, which means it can't be from there. We are still evaluating the flight data recorder, based on energy readings we think it hasn't traveled further than 10 light years before it crash landed in russia."  
"And is that far?"  
"It is more than any of our currently available craft can do without FTL drives, but on an interstellar scale? That is basically in our backyard."  
"Okay, the general has to hear about this. I'll brief him first thing tomorrow morning. Can you make a copy of this?"  
"Not sure. I'll have to talk to Shen about that. But we have been able to translate at least one fragment of it."  
"What does it say?"  
"Only this: Argo. The City must survive."  
"Any idea what this means?"  
"Maybe it is some kind of motto or mantra, like our own 'Vigilo Confido.'"  
"Do you realize what this means doctor? It means there is still a city out there. Probably right in our backyard, as you phrased it. Double check your translation and make sure it is guaranteed to be accurate."  
Vahlen gave Bradford a confused look. "How did you arrive at this conclusion?"  
"You said that the probe cannot originate from Krypton. This motto "The city must survive" - it can only mean that it was built and launched after the planets' destruction. Probably by a group of survivors who have been getting by in space ever since. We need to find this city, ASAP."  
"Ten light years, in a sphere around the earth – do you realize how much space we are talking about here? With our current telescopes, it may be centuries before we find them."  
"Then you better get started. Or just crack that flight data recorder so we can find a point of origin."

As Dr Vahlen left his office, Central opened up his secure connection to general Van Doorn in New York. He had to know now, this could not wait. The general was even less pleased than Bradford had been when he first heard the story.  
"Okay, Central, I need you to get Shen on this. Tell him to come up with something to improve our telescopes and maybe even something that can pick up signals moving at FTL speed. It would be really bad if they got here before the info that they are coming. Telescopes, satellites, I really don't care what he does as long as it works. We need to stop being blind and he is the man who can make it happen."  
"Alright, I'll get him on it. Anything else, general?"  
"That would be everything. Van Doorn out."  
"Poseidon out."

The call ended and general Van Doorn went back to read performance report. Poseidon was functioning well, now having survived without any outside supplies for 200 days. The base was now completely self-sufficient and able to produce anything it needed. The Susanoo as a prototype worked well too, so the security council agreed to fund 3 more submarines like it, to be built within the next 4 years. They might have to step up their timetable, the general thought. But while concerning, Vahlens information was too vague to go to the security council. Then, an idea sprung into his head.  
Van Doorn picked up the phone and typed.

"CatCo media, how can I help you?"  
"This is Peter Van Doorn, I need to speak with Kara Danvers. Yes, thank you, I can wait."


	5. The calm before the storm

"Danvers?"  
"Hello Miss Danvers, this is Peter Van Doorn. You interviewed me not long ago, remember?"  
"Of course. I haven't yet written and published, but it should be out in the next couple days."  
"Good to hear. But that isn't the reason I called. You told me, you knew how to contact Supergirl. I have to ask you a favor, please do that and reach out to her on my behalf. I have an – issue – on my hand that I need her help in dealing with. Nothing dramatic, just a bit of linguistics."  
"Linguistics?"  
"Yes. I have a bunch of data left behind in kryptonian language and I'd appreciate her help with translating. Since this is an open line, I won't go into details. Just tell Supergirl to visit me at my New York office if she is interested in helping out. You know where it is."  
"Okay, I'll do it. But your office doesn't have any windows, so I suggest you inform the door people."  
"Good point, I'm on it. Well, have a good day Miss Danvers and I'm looking forward to your article."  
"Good day to you as well, general."

Just as she ended the call, Kara realized Jimmy Olson had been standing close to her desk.  
"Who was that?" he asked.  
"That was general Van Doorn and you may be surprised, he needs my help. I'm supposed to contact Supergirl on his behalf. He needs her help translating some kryptonese."  
"Well, that is surprising. How did he get his hands on a kryptonese text in the first place?"  
"Probably the Russian. If it truly is from Krypton, I'm surprised they were able to do anything with it in the first place."  
"So, what do you think Supergirl is going to do?"  
Kara smiled. "I think she'll be very interested in what Van Doorn has found. So she's going to pay him a visit."  
"Well then, keep me updated. And I want your article from the interview you did with him tomorrow." He looked Kara in the eyes "On second thought, day after tomorrow sounds reasonable. Good luck Kara."  
"Thank you Jimmy." Kara left the Catco building, got up on the roof and started the flight to New York.

When Supergirl arrived at the UN building in New York, one of the guards approached her and asked to follow him. He then lead her into General Van Doorns office, who was already expecting Kara.  
"Supergirl. Welcome to New York. Have a seat." He motioned to the chair across his desk. Kara sat down. She focused on her super hearing listening for the generals' heartbeat. It was calm, calmer than most people she interacted with. She found that relaxing. As she said down, she replied:  
"Hello general. So, Kara Danvers said you needed my help with something? Something linguistic?"  
"Yes. What I'm about to show you is flight data we have been able to crack from the probe we recovered in Russia. We think the design is kryptonian because of the similarities to the craft Superman arrived in. We have only been able to translate some fragments from it and hoped you might be able to help out." He typed a bit, then flipped his computer screen around so Kara could see it.  
"What do you think, Supergirl?"  
Kara looked at the text displayed. She could read it easily, it was the exact same kryptonese she had learned in her childhood. Most of it looked like survey data from Sol and a few neighboring solar systems. The data confirmed Van Doorns initial guess, it was a scouting probes looking at suitability for building a colony, resources, everything a struggling group of survivors may be interested in.  
"This looks interesting. It is indeed a scouting probe, I think there are still survivors from my people out there. Any idea where it is from?"  
"I have one. What is "Argo"?"  
"Argo? Hmm, I think I remember it being a city on Krypton. A medium one, maybe a few hundred thousand inhabitants." Following her instinct, Kara chose to not disclose the fact that it was more than "a city" and in fact the place, where she grew up. Van Doorn gave her a sceptical look, but said nothing.  
"Why are you asking? Have you seen the name anywhere?"  
"As a matter of fact, I have. Scroll to the end of the document. But while we are at it, how advanced is – was - Krypton compared to Earth? I'm asking mainly in regards for travel, engineering and" he made a short pause "warfare."  
"Warfare? Do you think Krypton would declare war on you? Come on." As Kara scrolled to the end of the document she read over the same fragment XCOM had already been able to translate.  
"Argo. The city must survive." She muttered more to herself, but the general must have heard her.  
"So our initial translation was correct? That is good, yet concerning at the same time. Now, to answer your question the planet might not go to war with Earth, but a group of survivors that is desperate enough? They might."  
"I see. Well compared to Krypton, this place is a stone age world. Medicine, space travel, robotics – you name it. Everything is at least a century ahead of Earth, if not more."  
"Only a century? Well that is not as bad as I thought it would be." The general smiled.  
Kara couldn't help but smile too. "What do you want me to do then? Translate this file for you?"  
"Not quite. What you see is only a fraction of what we actually have from the probe. I want you to teach your language, kryptonian?"  
"kryptonese, actually"  
"Well, kryptonese then, to my science team; at least one or two of them. You probably have more important things to do than translating this stuff."  
"I don't know, kryptonese is a difficult language. It would probably be faster if I just translated for you."  
"Short term, yes. But as a long term measure I still want you to teach kryptonese." The general handed her a flash drive. "Everything you've seen is on this. If this probe is what I think it is, we have a difficult time ahead of us."  
Kara smiled, before she took the drive.  
"What are you offering in return?"  
"Pardon me?"  
"Well, you asked me to do something for you. You aren't expecting me to do it for free, are you?"  
Van Doorn sighed. "Very well, what do you want? And no, our kryptonite supply is not on the table and neither is the Dikson probe."  
Kara made a disappointed face. "Cadmus. What do you know about them?"  
"They are researching xenobiology and genetics, their prefered method is vivisection. Privately funded by Lillian Luthor. They are considered criminals as far as I'm aware and I have a standing order to arrest any Cadmus members and associates I find. Anything specific you are looking for?"  
"I haven't heard anything from them for quite some time and I need an update on what they are up to. You have a network of people around the globe, if anyone can find them it's going to be you. The DEO has been making their life difficult so I think they moved their activity out of the US."  
"Hmm, I'll have to make some calls. Administrating the civilian side of extraterrestrial – immigration, if you will – is not our job. That is up to the funding nations. We are just the ones who get called if there are problems that can't be solved with diplomacy and require – drastic measures."  
"How drastic?"  
"Reign-drastic."  
Kara decided it was now time to settle a thing that had been on her mind, ever since she ran into Van Doorn the first time.  
"Speaking of which, I feel like I owe you an apology. I should not have lost my temper when we first met at the DEO. But please understand, the person under that mask was a close friend of mine."  
"What? Please explain that. You didn't exactly look like close friends back then."  
"That was because I didn't know who was under the mask. It was only later, when Agent Danvers made an autopsy, that I realized who Reign really was. I still have no explanation what happened, but I'm pretty sure there is something else in play here that made Sam – my friend – put on the mask and become Reign."  
"Interesting. If there is, I'd like to know more. But you are the one who holds all the evidence here. So go and figure it out. As far as your temper goes, I don't hold a grudge. But you have to realize that with the kind of power you have, 'losing it' gets people killed. Please promise me you work on that. Because if not for this" and he held out a small device for a second, that Kara was unable to identify "I would not be sitting here anymore."  
"What is that?"  
"A miniature version of daxamite shield technology. I already told you, we've been hard at work evening the odds. A bigger version is integrated into our soldiers personal armor, that you have seen in Russia. It has been invaluable."  
"Any other gadget I should be aware of?"  
"Do you remember the Myriad incident? Well based on that, we developed psychic dampening implants referred to as mindshields by the troops. They are standard issue now."  
"And your weapons, while we are at it? They didn't look like anything I've seen before."  
"It's because they aren't. We were able to develop a new generation of small arms, gauss rifles. Their firepower outmatches anything common soldiers have now. And before you ask, the treaty that the XCOM project is based on says that we are not to give out technology unless there is a full scale invasion going on. So you'll probably not see them outside of our organization."  
"With Kryptonite ammunition?"  
"No, not by default. But judging from this data, we may want to stock up." Van Doorn looked Kara straight in the eyes. "Do you think we should stock up?"  
"What makes you think that?" Kara asked, slightly caught off guard.  
"You are not the only one who is good at reading people. I think that you absolutely didn't like what I just showed you. Which makes me wonder, why? Does the possibility of your people, your culture, still being out there excite you?"  
"It does. Look, general, I'll translate this and get back to you. Please find Cadmus for me, we have – unfinished business. Maybe it will be a little bit clearer when I have a full translation for you."  
"Alright then." Van Doorn closed their conversation with his statement. "You know where to find me, feel free to drop by whenever."

Just a few minutes after Supergirl left, the generals phone rang. He answered immediately.  
"So, what do you have for me Central?"  
"Everything. Facial scan and voice print, if she shows up in any surveillance network in the world we'll find out about it."  
"Hmm. Do we still have last weeks records?"  
"Yes, I think so."  
"Compare Supergirl to Kara Danvers, then. Just an idea, I mean don't you think the timing was a little bit too – convenient?"  
"Now that you mention it – running the analysis right now."  
"Great. While you are at it, get our covert operatives to keep an eye out for Cadmus activity. I need something, preferably whereabouts. But nothing major, maybe their Dubai operations."  
"May I ask you why, sir?" Central inquired. "You haven't sent XCOM assets after Cadmus, why start now?"  
"Supergirl. She wants Cadmus intel in return for her translation of the Dikson probe, which right now is the most urgent thing we need." Van Doorn explained.  
"Oh, you'll like this." Bradford suddenly cheered "Analysis data just came back from the comparison of Supergirl and Kara Danvers. There is a 99,8% match between them on visual as well as a 99,95% match on voice print, so we can safely assume they are the same person."  
"Interesting." Van Doorn said. "For now, make sure nobody outside myself or Poseidon knows about this. That means the other reporter, Clark Kent if I'm not mistaken, was probably a disguised Superman." The general smirked "'Old friend of mine', that fits."  
"Alright, I'll talk to the analysts. It should not be a problem, they are professionals after all."  
"Good. Call me as soon as you find something about Cadmus' Dubai project." The general ended the call, before considering his situation.

There is an old saying; "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". It covered Van Doorns situation with Cadmus pretty well. They were certainly not friends and he didn't trust Lillian Luthor, but they shared a similar cause in defending earth. So while the enemy of his (potential) enemy was far from being a friend, only a fool would throw a potentially very useful ally to the wolves for uncertain gain.  
He had said this much to the council, he could probably throw the full weight of XCOM behind catching Cadmus and take them out. Then he explained the exact same reasoning to them, which resulted in his standing order. This put the ball back into his field, where, if Van Doorn was honest about it, he liked it. It gave the council plausible deniability while leaving the decision to him, how much effort he wanted to commit to Cadmus. Which, right now, was not that much.

As Kara headed back towards the DEO she noticed one major oversight in her costume: The complete lack of pockets. It was an awkward experience, flying without losing the small but important flash drive Van Doorn had given her. She made a mental not to ask Winn for a redesign. When Kara arrived at the DEO, Winn Alex and J'onn were standing around a computer screen that still showed Argo and the Asteroid carrying it.  
"So, what is so important you had to call everyone? I was tracking someone who shipped illegal weapons to earth, the kind we _really_ don't want on the streets" complained Alex. "Why did you call me off? J'onn?"  
"Hello Kara, where have you been?" J'onn asked.  
"New York. I had an interesting conversation with a certain general. And no, he invited me first and I was a good girl." She added quickly, as Alex' face had a worried expression. "Winn, can you put this on a computer I can work on? And this outfit _really_ needs some pockets." Kara tossed him the drive, which he caught with ease.  
"What's on that?" he wanted to know.  
"The Black Box from the Dikson ship. Or at least a part of it. Van Doorn gave it to me and asked for help with the translation."  
"Sure, I can set something up for you. But you can't have access to any DEO network stuff, the last thing I want is a custom virus those XCOM people cooked up on the loose in our system. That said though..." he smirked. "Maybe I should cook something up, just to keep tabs on them. I know they put up a satellite network, I just can't get in. Their encryption is really powerful and these satellites must be really tiny. Too small for even our sensors here to pick up. Getting just a tiny peak into their network may be a very worthwhile endeavor."  
"Except" J'onn interrupted "I won't allow it. Van Doorn and his XCOM don't trust us already and if they discover your espionage program, who knows how they might react. Cadmus was just a crazy rich woman and a handful of other people and look how much of a pain they have been for us. Imagine how much worse our life would get, since XCOM have the UN behind them. We shouldn't give them any reason to mistrust us more than they already do. Kara, have they offered anything in return?"  
"Yes, I asked for data on Cadmus activities outside the US, they have been awfully quiet lately."  
"And the general agreed?"  
"Yes"  
"Surprising."  
"What do you mean?"  
"I expected XCOM and Cadmus to be a bit more sympathetic towards each other."  
"But Lillian Luthor is crazy." Winn interjected "She doesn't trust anyone she doesn't have complete control over."  
"Yes." J'onn replied. "But as a criminal and an outcast, Van Doorn may want her around anyway. At least if he is half as paranoid as I think he is."  
"Now that you mention paranoia" Kara added "he said something about implanted telepathic inhibitors they issued to all their personnel."  
"Interesting." J'onn considered. "That would explain my inability to read the generals' mind, or his soldiers', when Reign was killed. It also means that I have an easy way to tell who belongs to XCOM and who doesn't. Something we should keep in the back of our minds."  
"Do you think they have agents in disguise? Maybe even here?" Kara wondered.  
"Possible." J'onn answered. "I definitely wouldn't put it past them, wanting to keep tabs on us as much as we want to keep an eye on them."  
"So you won't try to identify and root them out then?" Winn interjected. "We cant compromise our security by keeping them around."  
"I also am not going to violate one of my core principals and try to read every agents mind. If we have a justified suspicion, that is a different story." J'onn said with only a hint of anger in his voice. But it was enough to make Winn not want to stress the matter further. "If you want to get rid of any XCOM operatives that may or may not exist within the DEO, do it the old fashioned way with some good police work. Now, would you please get started on helping Supergirl with that translation?"  
Winn inhaled as if to complain, but then let it slide and got to work.

About an hour later, Supergirl had translated the data general Van Doorn had given her. She showed her result to J'onn.  
"What do you think?" she asked, as he put down the tablet.  
"Argo must be in a very bad state. According to this they lack food, water, energy and have to ration even their oxygen by putting people into stasis. The probe data mentions a big water source in an asteroid not far from our solar system. Do the metals and minerals on this ring any bells?"  
"Well" Kara answered with hesitation "I think Cobalt is used as a catalyst in a power source and the other one, which you call Einsteinium I think, is a component in powering our faster than light drives. The logs mention a major source of both in this asteroid so it would probably be a thing they want. Badly."  
"According to this, the origin of this probe is 'Argo, the city that survives'. I think that confirms Winns observation of the asteroid. It also means they must have some kind of interstellar drive for the city itself, or at least a fleet of smaller mining ships and scouting probes with which they scout and scavenge resources. They probably have both."  
"I agree, their situation looks desperate. Can we do anything J'onn?" Kara asked hopefully.  
"I'm not sure." J'onn replied. "I mean, we really don't have the ability to send them any amount of resources. My ship is too small for transporting enough to actually make a difference."  
"Uhmmm, guys? GUYS!" Winn suddenly yelled. Everyone gathered around him, Alex barked "What?"  
"Argo – the meteor – it is moving. They just fired up some kind of drive and I picked up the energy spike. Initial trajectory calculations put it – on an interception course with earth." Winn explained. They left I think 5 days ago, it took the signal so long to travel to us. I'll calculate their estimated time of arrival, hang on. We have – ten months I think until they enter our solar system."  
"That is rather – slow." Kara was not impressed.  
"Considering that they basically strapped a drive to a giant piece of planetary rubble, I am very impressed. They are still moving at 10 times the speed of light. That is really a feat of engineering and I would love to talk to whoever is in charge when they get here."  
"Are you sure about their heading?" Kara wanted to know.  
"At this point" Winn replied "yes, but I need a few days to rerun my calculations and gather some extra telemetry. We should now in three days at the latest."


	6. A visit home

**Decisions and consequences  
** Three days later, Winn confirmed his initial data. Argo was on the move and it was heading for earth. He, Alex, Kara and J'onn sat together in J'onns' office at the DEO.  
"So" as Winn concluded his initial report. "What do we do now? Who do we tell?"  
"I think we should tell the president." Alex said "I mean, she is our boss."  
"I disagree" Kara replied. "I don't think we should tell anyone, at least until we talked to the city council first. Find out their intentions and how we can help them. The last thing I want is the president pointing a bunch of missiles at my home, or even worse: Inform general Van Doorn. There is no telling what he might do if he found out."  
"You realize that if he finds out we were hiding this from him, we'll lose every bit of good will we built up to now?" J'onn questioned.  
"Yes, but I don't want to risk my home city for offending some petty general. Besides, what's he gonna do? It's not like they can mount any meaningful attack." Kara answered. "Alex, J'onn, Winn I beg you: Please keep this one quiet and trust me. Let me talk to the city council and my mother first."  
"About that talk" Winn added "They aren't even in communications range yet. According to my calculations, it will take Argo five months to get close enough so we can talk to them.  
"Then we have five months to come up with a plan. They'll need help and probably supplies when they get here. So we should make sure we have something ready." Kara remained stubborn.  
"You realize what will happen, as soon as they get near our sun? They will all gain the exact powers you and Superman have." J'onn said.  
"Yes I know, thanks for reminding me J'onn. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." She brushed his concerns aside, as she sat down on a terminal Winn pointed to.

Just a week later, general Van Doorn visited Poseidon base for his routine inspection and as Dr Vahlen had said, "to witness a breakthrough". He knew she didn't use this word lightly, she referred to many of XCOMs technological marvels only as "minor" or "convenience". Curious what she had in store, he made his way from the dock into the main command room.  
All the senior command staff was waiting for him, he didn't visit too often. Bradfor, Vahlen, Commander Nakajima and Shen were standing around a console displaying a map of the star systems nearby.  
"Ah, general." Vahlen greeted him. "Good to see you. Now that we are finally together, we can get started." She opened a file and a picture from the workshop appeared, the Dikson probe with a few scientists and technicians working on it. "I have analyzed this ship. With the help from the file Supergirl translated for us, I was able to determine a point of origin." She switched the screen back to the star chart. "We are here" she continued and a blue dot appeared in one of the systems. "They are here." A red dot appeared between the earth system and another nearby star.  
"That's where they were when they launched the probe. Do we have anything more – recent?" Bradford asked.  
"Yes, as a matter of fact we do." Shen answered, before Vahlen could. "I have been trying to understand how the probes' faster than light drive works, it emits a very specific type of graviton particles. Particles our Nanosat network can detect, if I make some adjustments to the software. Those particles move faster than light as well, so they should give us ample warnings where the ship emitting them is headed. As a matter of fact, the recalibration should be done right about now."  
The nanosat network was a network of satellites intended to keep global communications going, in case humanity ever lost control of near earth orbit. The special thing about these satellites was their size, they were only as big as an average human hair. But there were a lot of them so they provided reliable communications.  
"Well" Van Doorn said. "Don't keep us in suspense then, doctor. Put it on screen."  
Shen was happy to comply and quickly a second red dot appeared on the star chart. He typed something into the console and a line appeared, connecting the two reds with the blue.  
"There." He said. "That is their current position and their projected course. It seems like whoever launched this probe is coming – here."  
"Wait what?" Bradford exclaimed. "How much time do we have?"  
Vahlen drew a calculator from her lab coat and made some on the fly calculations before answering.  
"I'd say about ten months. More or less."  
"More or less?" Bradford wanted to know.  
"A few days" she told him.

"Alright, everyone quiet." Van Doorn joined the conversation. "Doctors" he turned to Vahlen and Shen "I want a compressed report of this ready to give to the council in an hour. I'll call an emergency meeting, they need to know immediately. Make preparations to accelerate the construction of our remaining Susanoo class submarines. They need to be done before this" he pointed at the red dot on the star chart "gets here."  
"Are you aware this will kill our budget?" Bradford said with a smile.  
"I think" the general answered "we have bigger problems than our budget right now. Inform the quartermaster, we need additional soldiers and staff ready to go. Shen, how is the firestorm project getting along?"  
"Not even close to ready I'm afraid. We haven't even reached prototype stage yet. The Dikson probe has been helpful, but we still struggle to understand the physics behind the construction. But on the bright side, we have completed the design of Gauss based sniper rifles, machine guns and other support weaponry. The troops should enjoy the extra firepower. Our super heavy infantry vehicles, a concept I proposed to you earlier this year, should be ready for production next month."  
"Good. I'll be in the communications room, get this report for me."

Two hours later, general Van Doorn left the communications room with a feeling that he had just caused a heap of problems. Fortunately, the council members seemed to agree with his assessment of the situation and thus granted the resources he asked for. Constructing the submarines would take more time than they had so protecting the yards was a priority. He decided to leave diplomacy to the council and do his best to be ready when – if - they failed.

 **DEO, National City, directors' office  
** Part of his position as director of the DEO was paperwork. J'onn hated paperwork more than anything. Earth as a planet had really grown on him, except for this aspect of his life. He picked up a copy of the file Kara had translated earlier and started reading, when his secure phone rang. He picked up "Director J'onzz, DEO?"  
"Director J'onzz, what a pleasure. I hope you are doing something important." The woman on the other end did not have to introduce herself, he knew the presidents' voice when he heard it.  
"Madam president, to what circumstance do I owe the honor of your call?"  
"Cut the pleasantries, I just received a concerning report from our ambassador at the UN security council. When, exactly, were you going to tell me about the flying alien city heading for us?"

She knew about Argo and J'onn realized that he had to weigh his next words very carefully."Well" he started but she cut him off. "I don't really care about your excuses, I want to know what you are preparing to do."  
"Supergirl asked me to help, she thinks they are a group of desperate survivors from her planet. She asked me to help and find a way to communicate with them. Maybe we can even send some supplies."  
"Maybe." the president replied. "I'll have to make some calls, you make contact with them. See if they are really Supergirls people. If they are, I want to know at once."  
J'onn left his office, gathered Alex, Winn and Kara, then told them about the news.  
"Damn." Kara sighed. "We made a mistake, we should have at least told the president. Now we look incompetent."  
"Pray that they don't find out we chose to hide it, because then we'll look like traitors." Winn explained. "But at least, we still have 5 months to come up with a plan." He looked to J'onn. "What do we do?"  
"You said five months till they enter comms range, can you shave some time off of that?" he asked.  
"Maybe. I'll look into it. Maybe if I reverse the polarity of the graviton flow..." Winn went off, half-speaking, half mumbling and started on his computer.  
J'onn turned to Kara. "Let's assume we can contact Argo, what are you going to say to them?"  
"To be honest, I haven't really thought about that." she admitted.  
"Then start now. You have five months to come up with a good speech, while we work on a way for you to deliver it." he continued by adressing Alex. "Agent Danvers, please keep tabs on what is happening around the world. Employ our satellites. I want to know if anyone starts mobilizing their army."

 **Five months later, National City, DEO  
** Supergirl, Winn, J'onn and Alex were gathered in the main room. They kept their eyes trained on the main screen, waiting to establish the connection Winn had promised them. And, truly, the screen lit up. Kara was now looking at a woman who looked like someone she had known before, but then someone else moved into the frame. Someone she was only too familiar with.  
"MOM!" Kara screamed with joy. "You made it, you're alive! How?"  
"Kara?" came the reply and, only after a short time it took Alura to recognize her daughter "KARA! I can't believe it, look at you. You have grown so much since the last time I saw you. How is your cousin? I'm so happy you are doing well. Look at you, you are even wearing our old crest."  
Kara blushed. "I am. It has become a symbol of hope and inspiration to this world. But I'll give you all the details when I see you."  
"I'd love that. You and Kal have to visit me as soon as you can. We have a lot of catching up to do. But, Kara, I need to ask a favor of you. Or rather, of earth. You see, we have lived but it was hard. Our food and water is running low. Would you be so kind as to help us out?"  
"Certainly." She replied eagerly. "But – how do we get it to you? Earth doesn't have a ship big and fast enough to reach you with supplies."  
Her mothers face betrayed only a hint of disappointment, and only to someone who knew her as well as Kara did. "That's a shame. If at least you had transmat tech, you could come over."  
"Wait, J'onn, don't we still have that old transmat portal in the basement?" Kara asked.  
"Yes. But it's a fixer-upper and we'll need some help to get it up and running."  
"Maybe we can help you from here. I'm sending you plans and blueprints." Winn gave a thumbs up, as he saved the file Alura sent on his hard drive.  
"Got it, mom. We'll get to work and call you as soon as we have our portal up and running."  
Her face lit up with hope and relief. "Thank you Kara. You have no idea how much this means to me.  
"Alright Kara, I'm looking forward to seeing you. And Kal."

The call ended and they got to work. With Karas help translating what Alura had sent, Winn was able to repair the portal and get it working. The portal was big enough to allow a small rover with crates on it through. Fortunately, the president had agreed to their plan and so Kara and the DEO found themselves with a lot of food and water packed in crates as well as rovers to carry them.

Even Superman had come over from Metropolis to visit the last city of Krypton and accompany Kara, Alex and three technicians controlling the supply carriers on their mission. They sent a message to Argo announcing their visit, then stepped through the portal.  
Argo did not look much different from the time Kara remembered growing up. She was relieved for that. She noticed that the woman waiting for her on the other side was not her mother, but another person she had little to no memory of. Also waiting for them was a dozen visibly armed security guards.  
"Welcome to Argo. You must be Kara Zor-El and Kal-El. Good to see you after all that happened."  
"I'm sorry, I don't remember you. Who are you?" Kara asked.  
"Ah of course." The other woman said. "I am Selena, of Argo citys' high council."  
"Where is my mom? I was expecting her to greet me here." Supergirl wondered.  
"Oh that. Alura is indispensable, taking care of an issue with the faster than light drive. She'll join us later in the council chamber, when we all come to hear your story. In the mean time, why don't you show Kal around? The city is beautiful and hasn't really changed much, despite the dire circumstances."  
She turned to the technicians. "Kazim, Jor-us, please guide these gentlemen to our supply storage. I can't thank earth enough for their help."

 **Earth, DEO, a few minutes later**

Kara and the DEO had left the portal only lightly guarded, by just two DEO agents. When Selena and six of her most trusted followers walked through the portal, they were naturally surprised. "Madam?" One of the guards approached the kryptonians. "I'm sorry, we weren't expecting anyone. Please wait here while I call it in." He never got to his radio as Selena vaporized him with a heat vision blast, one of her followers grabbed the other guard by the throat.  
"Now, where do we find the leaders of this planet? We have an announcement to make."  
"New... York..." was all the man could say before his windpipe got crushed. Two of them stayed behind to guard the portal, the others left for New York.

 **New York, UN building**

"General Van Doorn?"  
"Bradford here. We have 5 small supersonic objects coming in from National City."  
"Send the skyranger from JFK airport. Evacuate the council immediately. Send three strike teams to National City. And get me a line to the DEO. What the hell is going on?"  
"I don't know sir, but I'll get on it immediately. You should wait for the skyranger at the heliport. I'll keep you updated."  
"Where's the Susanoo?"  
"Near the west coast, they'll be flying in the strike teams. May take a few hours to get everything we need."  
"Hurry up. Fly additional teams in from Canada and Mexico. I think we'll need all the firepower we can get, make sure they have kryptonite rounds. I want our main force in National City, I have no idea how they made it to our planet but I'm pretty sure the DEO has the answer to that one. Move out."  
He ended the call, then called into the DEO. "Director J'onn J'onnz?"

"General Van Doorn. What the hell is going on? Our kryptonian population just doubled. Care to explain how?"  
"I lost contact with my people in Argo. Please don't open hostilities before we know anything specific."  
"Don't worry, my people know how to keep a low profile. But let me warn you: When we move, we move fast and hit hard. We have to take them down before they know what hit them."  
"You do that. Maybe I can solve this without violence."  
"Maybe you can. Call me if you can't."  
With this, the general ended the call, then dialed Bradford up again.  
"Sir?"  
"No confirmation, but we should assume the worst. I want a Big Boy and a handler moved to National City immediately."  
"Are you serious? Blow up an entire city?"  
"Not a human city. But if whatever brought these kryptonians here works into the other direction too, I want a hospitality gift for our return visit on standby."  
Bradford sighed audibly. "Alright sir, I'll do it. Good luck."


	7. Counterstrike

The general boarded the skyranger together with the two council ambassadors that were actually in the UN building, dropped them off in Washington DC and moved on towards National City. Moving the squads from Canada and Mexico would take a few hours. In the meantime, he had to get intelligence for when his people would be ready to move. He put on the passenger helmet and plugged into the skyrangers' systems, so he could utilize its' more sophisticated communications devices. He picked up on a news broadcast that must have started after they reached Washington DC, that was now accessed and multiplied by every major and minor network in the US, and then globally.  
The footage just showed a single woman on screen, clad in a black dress with an engraved sign on her chest that – vaguely – looked similar to what Superman and Supergirl wore. The footage must be running in a loop because she just started her speech.  
"People of Earth. I am Selena, high councilwoman of Argo and your new goddess. From this day onward, your planet is part of the new krypton empire.  
I would like to thank my good friends Kara Zor-El and Kal El of Krypton, who arrived here long before me and prepared the planet. Disobey an order given, raise a hand against me or my people and you will be severely punished. I shall now make an example out of those who defied me already and the city that bred them. Witness the wrath that shall befall those who stand against us."

Van Doorn reached out to the radar- and monitoring division in New York but got no response. He then opened the line to the DEO again, where he was answered by J'onn.  
"Have you turned on the news, in the past few minutes?" the general asked.  
"In case you mean Selenas speech, yes I have. Alright, I'm listening. What do you want?"  
"Where are they from and how did they get here?"  
"They are from the city of Argo. We have an old transmat portal at the DEO, Kal-El and Kara used it to bring them supplies, but haven't returned yet. I tried to get in touch with the agents looking after it, security footage revealed they were murdered by Selena. Two kryptonians stayed behind to guard the portal."  
"Then that is our first objective. I'm moving the bulk of my forces in, we have to recapture that portal and then schedule a return visit."  
"Why not just secure our side and wait for Kal and Kara?"  
"Because the moment they step out of that, they gain superpowers. So fighting on their turf will increase our odds of victory. But we need to deal with those two first and then worry about where they came from. Cut off any possible reinforcements, before we engage Selenas' group."  
"I want to come and join the people you send to Argo."  
"No you don't. It will be messy and the last thing I want is a civilian in the way of my soldiers. If I see you near that portal after we took it, there will be hell to pay. Besides, I think you have a whole different issue on your hands right about now. The president won't be happy after she watched the news."  
J'onn sighed, even as he was hearing his secure phone ringing. "Alright, I'll handle the president. You just get that portal back."  
"We will."

Van Doorn next reached out to Bradford, who was still at Poseidon base. "Central. I need you to patch me into the teams heading into National City."  
"Alright, I'll do that. By the way, Big Boy is on his way. His handler is a demolitions expert, Staff Sergeant Bowman. He is coming in together with Strike one. Strike two and three will get there first."  
"Good. Now patch me in."  
"Will do. You are in – now."  
The general took a deep breath, as he readied himself. His first war deployment since he took command of XCOM. But he was as new to this as was everybody else.  
"Listen up people, as you may have seen earth is under attack. The attack is originating from a portal inside the DEO. Your mission, with three strike teams, is to take control of that portal. After doing so, I want you to cross over and start a counterattack. You have been briefed on Argo already, on the other side your main objective is to destroy the faster than light drive and the portal, stop them from sending reinforcements to earth; by any means necessary. Staff Sergeant Bowman is assigned to strike one as a demolitions expert, he will be carrying a Big Boy. Use it as a weapon of last resort. Overall mission commander will be Captain Ryker, second in command is Master Sergeant Davis. Good luck, Vigilo Confido."

As the general cut the connection, Davis looked around in the skyranger at the determined men and women under his command. The moment they had been training for came closer and closer. Some of them would not return. Some would return, changed forever. He thought about one of the most memorable quotes from his SEAL training, about the nature of war. War never changes, no matter the time and place in the universe. The details did, but some fundamentals always remained the same as evidenced by the fact that Sun Tzus' ideas were taught to officers and leaders, even today. The skyranger touched down in front of the DEO building, together with two other craft of the same design that delivered the strike teams two and three. He moved his team out and took point as they marched up. Thankfully local authorities had cleared the area of civilians. The twenty members, consisting of the captain, Bowman and three strike teams, represented the best soldiers of the planet. They had the best weapons and armor between them. If they could not win this fight, nobody could.

As the squads made their way into the DEO, a lot of heads were turned. Davis paid no attention to them, he had more important matters to focus on. But the message was clear: They were the cavalry and expected to sort this mess out. The doors that lead into the portal room were closed, by the kryponians or the DEO he could not say.  
"Strike Two, Strike one, prepare for a breach. Strike three provides covering fire. Hit them hard and fast. Davis, Laurent, I want you two ready for precise shots on target. Engage stabilizers and bring the pain." Captain Rykers' orders were short and clear, the squads took positions around the two doors that lead into the room. As the other soldiers took positions, he set up near one of the doors. Laurent, strike twos' marksman, took the second door.  
He lifted his weapon and engaged his armor servos to help him keep it steady. The heavy gauss rifle he used normally required two soldiers to lift and operate it, but thanks to his powered armor he could do it by himself. Everyone braced themselves as Bowman counted down. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...  
"BREACH! BREACH! BREACH!"  
The charges went off and 18 soldiers opened fire, laying down a hail of steel and kryptonite. Unlike his rifle, Davis' squadmates only had every fifth round reinforced with kryptonite. The two kryptonians, a man and a woman, were completely surprised not only by the sudden burst, but also the effectiveness of XCOMs' fire. Weakened they sunk to the ground, as Davis and Laurent lined up their shots. Just six seconds after the breaching charges went off, the portal to Argo was in the hands of XCOM.

"Ryker to Van Doorn. The portal is ours. Do we move now?"  
"Negative Captain. I have a super heavy infantry vehicle incoming, wait for it before you proceed. And captain? New York is under attack right now and I'm bringing in everything we have. So once the SHIV gets to you, expect no further reinforcements. Do what you have to do, I'm transmitting the Big Boy activation codes right now. Good luck and shoot straight. Van Doorn out."  
Davis looked over to Bowman, who gave a thumbs up to the captain. Just as they finished their conversation, a new icon appeared on the tactical display included in his helmet. The icon belonged to a semi-autonomous support weapons platform, heavily armored and equipped with a larger version of the gauss machine gun carried by the soldiers. Unlike his sniper rifle and the assault rifles, the machine gun was simply too heavy to be carried and operated without power armor.  
"Get ready to move, SHIV leads the charge. Follow with the machine gunners. Bowman, you are the last man to cross. Move out."

As Davis stepped through the portal, the firefight had already started. He scrambled for cover and assessed the situation. The kryptonians had not left their side of the portal unguarded, but, fortunately, seemed to completely lack the superpowers they were expecting. They used cover and fired what looked like energy weapons at them. One of his squad, Sergeant Kowalski, was already lying on the ground not moving, a small cloud of smoke rising from his armor.

"Captain to everyone. Disable your forcefields, whatever they are shooting is not stopped by them. Conserve your energy, it has to last. Marksmen, switch to regular AP rounds. And get those bots out of the sky." Just then, he noticed flying robots strafing their positions with energy fire. Two machine gunners tried to take them down, but they were too agile and evaded their salvos with ease. Davis exchanged his magazine of kryptonite rounds for a regular armor piercing set and tried to line up a shot on a bot, but it was too fast for his auto tracker. He breathed and adjusted, then fired. The bullet struck true and the robot tumbled to the ground, where it exploded.

Then a new Icon appeared on his tactical display and he adjusted to look at it. The captain had placed a marker on one of the buidings near the plaza, on which the portal was located. From its' windows he could see kryptonians taking shots at them, some hitting their target, some off the mark. "Strike one, go and clear that out. SHIV and strike two give covering fire. On my mark." The sniper brought his rifle around and took aim at a kryptonian in one of the windows. The man must have sensed the danger, because he immediately dropped low. But Davis just lowered the rifle where he thought his opponent must be, then shot. He had no clue whether he hit, but the man never showed himself again. Just after that, the SHIV trained its' gun on the building and started laying down bursts of suppressive fire. Together with that, he heard the captain again. "Strike one, move! GO GO GO!"

Davis saw his squadmates jump to their feet and run, while the SHIV and strike twos' machine gunner forced the kryptonians back into cover. He could see lance coproral Meyer kick down the door and rush in, while Davis caught a glimpse of green in his peripheral vision. Instinct made him drop prone immediately, avoiding a hit only narrowly. He brought his rifle around, reengaged the satbilizer, and brought the kryptonian down with a return shot.

As Meyer kicked the door in, the material only offered little resistance. He had his gun loaded with shrapnel rounds, achieving a shotgun like effect while sacrificing range. The whole building gave him a police station vibe and as they cleared it room by room, that initial guess was confirmed. He discovered a maintenance station for the bots that harassed them earlier. He was semi-expecting an army of superbeings but to his delight that the kryptonians on Argo, far from Earths' yellow sun, bled and died the same as everyone else. Still, they fought well and gave XCOM a run for their money. As the other squads moved into the building, they searched and found something akin to a jail, with only two cells occupied. As Davis and the captain moved in, the Master Sergeant recognized one of the prisoners immediately. "Well well" he said, as he removed his helmet and gave the other person time to recognize him. "You always meet twice."  
When the insight of who she was talking to dawned on her, Supergirls' face became a nasty mixture of panic and disgust.

"It seems like Selena was lying when she said you two worked with her."  
"What do you know about Selena?" Kara was really surprised. "And what are you doing here? What happened?"  
"Well" Davis said "long story short, Selena and some of her people from this city waltzed into the UN and declared themselves the new gods of Earth. We conquered the portal to Argo while they were busy 'making an example' of New York and started our little counterattack."  
"So who controls the transmat portal now?"  
"On Earth, nobody. On this side, we do. And before you ask, no, any kryptonian that tries to reach earth this way will be shot. That includes you two."  
Captain Ryker nodded in agreement, but said nothing. Kara replied "then please, let us help you here. My mother is on the council, maybe she can talk sense into Selena and the others."  
"I doubt it." the soldier replied. "Because none of them will get back here alive. If the strike teams on Earth don't get them, we will. But right now, we have different fish to fry."  
Ryker took over the conversation. "Alright, break is over. We are back to war people. Launch our UAVs, I want strike three setting up shop here while everyone else moves for the objective."  
"What is your objective?" came the question from Superman.  
"We destroy their faster than light drive and the transmat portal. This hunk of space junk will NOT, under any circumstances, reach Earth." Now the captain was doing the talking. Neither Kara nor Kal liked the way things were going, but for the time had no choice in the matter.  
"Okay, I get it. You do what you have to do. But maybe – maybe – I can help. I can lead you to the drive, I think I know where it is. I'll do it only if you take Kal and me back to earth with you." Kara said with a pleading tone to her voice.  
"I'll consider it." The captain replied. "But I wouldn't worry about returning to Earth just yet if I were you. We need to take the drive down first and foremost."

Davis tracked the UAVs on his tactical display, but it was difficult to make out the purpose of different buildings without the ability to peer through walls. The squad had agreed to set Superman and Supergirl free, but the captains' earlier warning was repeated and insisted on. Henderson, the technician handling the drones, was running scans and tests. "I got something. The radiation Vahlen picked up earlier, that allowed us to discover this place, is emitted by one place. I'd say that is our best guess as to where we need to go."  
The captain took his tablet and looked at it. "Looks promising. We know that their drives emit this radiation. Alright, pack it up people. We are moving out. Strike three holds the portal, I want strike two to make noise and create a diversion while we move on the objective." He radioed the teams with their orders, or at least Kara assumed he did. Kal – Clark – had been very quiet as this whole thing went down but now he addressed Ryker.  
"So lets assume you accomplish your mission, then what?"  
"Pretty simple." He responded. "We make our way to the portal then return to earth, leaving a little parting gift in the form of extra C4 to make sure it closes behind us. Permanently."  
"And then? The city will be left adrift, with no drive and no way to resupply and restock."  
The officer shrugged. "Not my problem. They should have thought about that before attacking Earth. The only difference is they didn't expect us to put up the kind of fight we did, I'll not make the same mistake by leaving anything to chance."  
"Captain, please, be reasonable. You can't just sentence a city to death like that."  
"But the Argo council can? Because the last thing I heard was that they were leveling New York. We can't communicate with Earth right now, so that info may be dated. However, my orders were crystal clear: Destroy the drive and the portal, so that is exactly what I'll do."  
"If they really are attacking New York, you need to send Kara and me back. We are the only ones who can stop it."  
"You aren't. The other strike teams are more than capable enough to handle this. Did you really think they left the portal that brought us here in the first place unguarded? Trust me when I say Earth will survive."  
"But at what cost?"  
"At whatever cost it takes. Now, you and your cousin have a choice to make: Are you going to help or get out of the way?"  
"Neither. I will not allow this!" Clark reached for the captains' sidearm, but he was faster and struck Superman down with his rifle butt. Five other rifles instantly aimed at Kara, who raised her arms.  
"You should not have done that, but it seems like you made your choice." He drew his pistol and aimed at Clarks' head. "Now deal with the consequences."  
"No no no please don't, he is desperate. He hasn't seen anyone from our planet besides me ever since he arrived here, can you blame him for wanting to save his people?"  
The captain lowered his weapon. "I guess not. Fast Lane, tend to him. And you" he looked directly into Karas' eyes "make sure he doesn't get in my way again because there will not be a third chance. We'll talk about this whole thing when – if – we get back to Earth. Until then, you do what I say when I say it. Understood?"  
"Yes."  
"Good. Now, move out."

The noise of combat had emptied the streets of the city, that not so many hours ago had been bustling with people. The squad moved in silence, Kara and Fast Lane carrying the still unconscious Clark. Supergirl could feel the terrified looks of Argos' citizens watching from their windows. She could see the Soldiers movements, speaking from years of training together. The DEOs' agents were effective, but these people were on a different level regarding their coordination. The captain had ordered them to move along the main street, guided by Hendersons' scan and drones. They were all sticking to the sides, close to buildings and ready to dive for cover at any second.  
Then, suddenly, a blue energy beam hit Ryker square in the chest, tearing a football sized hole and killing him instantly.  
"AMBUSH!" Davis yelled and the squad jumped into entrances and a side alley, returning fire into the general direction the beam had come from.  
"This way, quickly everyone. Run!" He pointed into a side alley as more beams were now hitting facades and punching holes into them. Laying down suppressive fire, the machine gunner covered while the others moved. Unfortunately, another soldier Kara hadn't been able to talk to was cut down by the incoming fire. They spent a few seconds running, before Henderson arrived at a building that towered above the others. Kicking down the door, the squad moved inside. There were a dozen or so people with rifles hot on their heels, but XCOM managed to drive them back. Kara set her cousin on the ground, before she took a look around. It was only a single floor building with no obvious ways upward and reinforced-looking walls.

"Alright, everyone gather up. Sitrep. What do we have?" Master sergeant Davis adressed his team.  
"Captain is down, so is Sultan. About a dozen of them between us and the portal home, we ain't getting through that sir."  
One of the soldiers held out a scanner checking on the equipment and machinery surrounding them. "Status on the objective?" Davis adressed him.  
"Drones got taken down, we lost contact to strike team Two and Three. Latest intel is we are about three klicks away from the target. But the longer we are stuck in here the less likely we are to reach it. Their bots are setting up shop just outside. We may have another half hour before we get our asses stormed, at which point we hold or we die."  
"Any idea what this place is? Something on the scanner?"  
"I know." Kara said. "This is the main Argo power plant, it produces most of the energy the city needs."  
"Interesting. Bowman, where are you?"  
"Here sir."  
"Run a full scan, see if you can mess with their power supply."  
"Right away sir."

Davis turned back to Kara, while Clark was still out cold. Fast Lane still tended to him, which she only now recognized as Shivani Bose.  
The soldier named Bowman came back, just a minute later and whispered something into Davis' ear. He nodded, then took out his combat knife and attached it to his gun.  
"Everyone, listen up. This was a volunteer only mission because there was a good chance we would not return. That chance has now turned into certainty. Our mission still is to stop this piece of space junk from reaching earth. That hasn't changed. We are sitting on 99% of the power supply they need to keep their drive going, so I say: We blow it all up. Bowman, get Big Boy ready to play. Everyone else, affix bayonets. Here is where we make our stand. We are XCOM and we will end this. Humanity is counting on us."  
The squad got active quickly. Bowman took his backpack off and started doing something with it that Kara could not see. The others set up defenses, someone even took out a small plasma cutter and started to weld one of the doors shut. She approached Dr Bose, still worried.  
"How is he?"  
"As well as he'll ever be, considering the circumstances." Kara allowed herself a sigh of relief, before she continued.  
"I'm not sure if I can ask you this, but what is 'Big Boy'?"  
"A portable thermonuclear weapon. It was originally intended to be carried by fighter craft, to threaten larger enemy vessels."  
"Wait you are telling me you are going to set this off, here, now? The city will die! Everyone here will. Including you! Did you know about this?"

Shivani gave Kara the most frightening look she had ever received, hatred and determination in a combination she had never seen before. "Yes. I knew. Everyone does, that's why this mission is volunteers only. Because there is no getting out of the blast radius on this one. I had friends and family in New York, until your people leveled the place. A city for a city. That's only fair, as far as I'm concerned."  
Kara took a look around and realized the same grim determination that governed Bose had taken hold among the entire squad, when it dawned on her: They wanted revenge. Selenas followers were not going down without a fight, a fight that had to cause all manner of destruction. The sniper shot from afar tactic had worked in securing them access to Argo, but it would not work again. Bose was still tending to Superman, while the other soldiers had taken positions near the doors. Two of them kept eyes on her, weapons at the ready. Bowman and Davis were working on Bowmans' "backpack", whose true nature disgusted Supergirl. A few minutes later, they got up.  
"Alright people, Big Boy is primed and ready to go. Does anyone have something they wish to say, before this ends?"  
"Sarge, you're an asshole."  
"I know, Henderson."  
"Please don't do this. This is my city, my home. You have a choice. It doesn't have to be this way." On earth, she had been Supergirl. The girl of steel, the heroine and she would have never allowed things to go down the way they were going. Here, on Argo, she had no powers. XCOM had the weaponry to go toe to toe with the peacekeeping robots and armed security personnel. The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming, her childhood's city was about to die and there was nothing she could do about it.

Then, out of a sudden, everyone stiffed up again. Supergirl guessed it must have been from a message she could not hear because it only came in through their helm communications. Then, the whole squad burst into activity. Bowman worked on Big Boy again while the others grabbed what equipment they could. She was still confused, but never left Supermans' side. Only when Dr Bose returned to her side she allowed herself to talk.  
"What happened?"  
"Strike Two opened a breach in the kryptonian forces. We'll get out of here and make a run for the portal. Even our SHIV is still up and running."  
"And the bomb?"  
Bose glanced over. "It looks like Bowman is setting a timer. Yeah, he just configured the remote."  
Kara followed her look, only to catch the tail end of a conversation between the team leader and Bowman the demolitions expert.  
"Alright sir, the moment you press this button we have 20 minutes to get out of here. Once you do, there is no way to disable it. Remember what the general said, no going back. And no backing down."  
"I get it Bowman, now hand me the remote. Setting this off will be the last thing we do before we leave this building. Grab your stuff and get ready for a hot extraction."


	8. Aftermath

The squad lined up at the door, while Clark slowly regained consciousness. He was dizzy, but able to walk. As long as they would stay back and avoided the crossfire, Kara thought they would be fine. "Switching to platoon frequency. This is Master Sergeant Davis. I'm assuming command after Captain Ryker died. Listen carefully because I'll only say this once. On my mark starts the countdown, we'll have ten minutes before Big Boy blows this place to kingdom come. So what I need out of you is a quick and ordered retreat to earth. Last man out, lock the door with a few grenades. Get ready."  
"This is strike three, we are still holding. Even the SHIV is still up. If you make it to us, we're going home."  
"Good. We'll bring the party to you three. Fireworks go off in three... two... one. MOVE IT OR LOSE IT, TEAM!"  
The door opened again and while two rifles lay down covering fire, everyone else made a run for it.

Kara was in good shape, but she tried to help Clark and without her powers she was nowhere near the physical level the best soldiers of earth were. It only took a few seconds before she was left in the dust. Supergirl had to hurry, but in the wake of destruction XCOM left behind them, she and Clark were able to slip by the other kryptonians. Being caught in the crossfire between strike one and two, Argos' security force had no choice but to retreat into cover and let XCOM pass. They had been running for about a kilometer when Kara was feeling the fatigue. She swore to herself to exercise more until she realized, there was no such thing for a kryptonian on earth. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, her survival instinct took over. She wanted to scream and shout a warning about what the XCOM squad had done, but her lungs were too busy pumping fresh oxygen so her legs could keep moving. Still carrying her cousin, she ran after the soldiers. She only stopped moving when she was about to reach the portal to earth. A small vehicle was standing there, armed and laying down suppressive fire. Davis and Bose were the last ones at the gate and gestured her to follow them. She mobilized everything she had left and went through.

On the other side, J'onn was already waiting for her. He embraced Kara and Clark, then they took a look around. XCOM had been heavily decimated, of the twenty soldiers who departed, only eight returned. The survivors looked like they took a heavy beating too, Davis must have taken a glancing hit to his arm and Bose was limping. She was amazed they were still on their feet.  
"Okay, now that this is done we need to contact Argo and negotiate..." J'onn started, but was cut off by Davis.  
"Don't bother. Big Boy just went off and we destroyed their portal on the way out. One way or another, we won't be hearing from them again."  
"What do you mean? What is Big Boy?"  
"A thermonuclear warhead they planted in the main power plant." Kara replied before anyone else could.  
Clark was mortified. "You NUKED the city? What on earth were you thinking? Who authorized that?"  
"What I was thinking? I'll tell you. I was thinking 'that piece of space junk does not make it to earth on my watch. Whatever it takes.' And who do you THINK authorized that?"  
"Van Doorn." Clark growled. "Kara, we need to go to New York. This man has now crossed a line." He already wanted to leave, when the news feed Henderson was watching caught his eye. "What's that?"  
"That?" the soldier answered, before he adjusted his display so Superman had a better view. "That used to be New York, now I'd call it a pile of rubble. Initial casualties are estimated to be hundreds of thousands. Your people, this Selena woman, did that."  
"When? Where are they now?"  
"While we were in Argo I'd guess. And now, they are all dead. The other teams must have dealt with them. The general just went on a press conference and stated that they got all of them. Other teams confirmed five kills. Plus our two at the portal makes seven. We took heavy losses, here and on Argo. But I'd say for our first trial by fire, that was not bad."  
"Henderson, you are right. Not bad at all. Skyranger is on the way, you all earned some R&R."  
Superman put a heavy hand on Davis' shoulder. "Not so fast. You aren't going anywhere. Not before we know Argos' fate and you answered for it."  
"Really?" He put his own hand on, but Supermans' grip was hard.  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." the kryptonian said. Davis reached into his belt and brought up a box that looked like a spare clip for his rifle.  
"Would you hold this for me please?" As he snapped off the cover, Supermans' grip immediately loosened due to the effect the kryptonite had on him. Kara saw what looked like a set of green needles. The soldier punched her cousin, who stumbled back. "Look." he said "I have no quarrel with you and I am grateful for the things you have done for our planet. But: These men and women are war heroes. They stepped up when nobody else was ready. They did what was needed. They never gave up the fight. They earned a break. Now, are you just going to let us walk away or do we have to fight another kryptonian?" As he said that, everyone tensed up. Especially the XCOM soldiers reached for their weapons and readied them.

"DEO personnel, stand down. There will be consequences to what you just did, Master Sergeant." J'onn said.  
"Of course. There always are." He picked up his magazine as Superman got to his feet. "And when the time comes to answer questions about what happened today, the general and I will answer. But not to you."

The next days were spent quiet in Karas' apartment. She was devastated. J'onn had given her and Alex time off their DEO duties while Winn confirmed Argos' fate. Even Clark showed up to her place and offered his comfort, but needed hers just as much.  
"Alright, J'onn, data is coming in – now." He had readjusted his instruments and now got a clear look at Argo, or rather the crater where it used to be. "Oh my god. These madmen actually did it. I thought Kara over exaggerated when she talked about this warhead."  
J'onn looked at the screen, his face a mask of horror. "Any survivors?"  
"Unlikely. I can't see any energy readings, or even the remotest hint of technology being available to them. Unless they can breathe vacuum, nobody who was in this city survived. Argo is gone. The last city of Krypton is now dead and XCOM killed it."  
J'onn sighed. "Kara and Kal won't be happy about this."  
"What do you think they will do?"  
"Try and drag Van Doorn through every court on this planet? If that doesn't help, I have no idea. I hope they won't do anything stupid."  
"I don't know. Just let me say this: I have never seen any of them truly lose someone they care about. Did it come close a few times? Yes. Did it – somehow – always end up working out? Definitely. Do I really want to know how Kara will deal with losing Alex or – now – her mother? Absolutely not. But it seems like we'll all know soon, for better or worse."  
"Are you the one who'll break the news to them?" J'onn checked the computer screen again, before he replied.  
"Probably. Unless you volunteer."  
"Ahhhh, no. I'll pass."

Winn kept reading news feeds from all over the world, when he said "oh-oh".  
"What?" J'onn asked. Instead of replying, Winn showed him the article on his screen.  
"Peter Van Doorn to be knighted by Dutch royalty." J'onn murmured. "For their outstanding performance during the New York attack, quickly neutralizing the attackers and saving thousands of lives, the president of the United States has announced her intention to also award the Silver Star to any American soldiers who are part of the strike teams that ended the New York attack" he kept reading on. "Well, Kara and Kal are not going to like this one a bit."  
"No, they probably won't. How are you going to tell them? By the way, it looks like many other countries have announced their intentions to honor their XCOM soldiers."  
"Well it isn't getting better from just letting it sit. I'll head to Karas' apartment and get this over with."  
"Good luck J'onn."  
"Thank you, call me if anything new comes up."

When J'onn arrived at Karas' apartment, he was surprised to not just find Kara and Alex, but Clark and James Olson as well. If not for the huge bucket of ice cream Kara had standing next to her, he would not have guessed anything was wrong. She was either coping better than he had given her credit, or still in heavy denial. Alex opened the door for him and asked him to come in.  
"How is she?" he whispered quietly.  
"Not well. Losing her home once was bad enough, losing it again? You better bring good news."  
"How does Van Doorn getting knighted sound? And the other soldiers receiving their countries military honors?"  
"Not exactly the kind of news that I'm looking for."  
At this moment, J'onns' phone rang. It was Winn. "Hey, sorry to bother you but I think I have something. It looks like they were keeping the lid on the Argo incident. Not on New York, but their counterattack."  
"Interesting, but why?"  
"Because deploying a nuclear weapon is still a PR issue?"  
"Possible. Could also be because they want to avoid unpleasant questions on the whereabouts of our own kryptonian heroes. It looks like this has also been kept rather quiet. Speaking of which" he asked Alex "have they talked about what happened? XCOM has been keeping their mouths rather shut, so nothing on the news about Argo."  
"Not really. Well, Kara said that almost immediately after stepping a few meters away from the portal, they had guns pointed at them. Because of the way their powers work, they were regular people on Argo. The technicians escorting the supplies were pretty much murdered on the spot, Kara and Kal were brought into a makeshift police station near the portal.  
That very same station was later stormed by XCOM soldiers mounting their counterattack. At this point, their descriptions start to get vague. Kal said he took a rifle butt to the face and doesn't remember much."  
"Hmm. So they haven't really said anything that wasn't on the news?"  
"No, except for the part where Argo got nuked. That was not on any news broadcast. But a lot of people seem to buy Selenas' story on how they worked for her all along and prepared the planet for takeover."  
"Hey, what are you two so whispering on about?" Kara only just noticed J'onn. She went up to him and dragged him towards the couch, where Clark was already sitting. Alex followed silently. When they sat down, an eerie silence governed the room. Nobody seemed to want to say somethin, when Alex ended up breaking the silence.  
"So, what do you guys want to do now?"  
"Well" Kal said "what CAN we do? I think we go public with our story. These people are mass murderers and we need to tell the world what happened. So Kara and I will start writing. The pen is mightier than the sword after all."  
"And if it isn't? I cant forget the look on their faces when the squad found out about New York. And Kal – you have seen it yourself. If New York was hit half as bad as the news said it was, we might encounter little sympathy with our story."  
"Since New York is gone, where is Van Doorn?" Kal asked.  
"If I had to guess, in their underwater base. But Washington DC sounds plausible too."  
"Underwater base?" She told him what she knew about Poseidon.  
"That's probably where they stash their kryptonite too." He said when she was done. I want this place gone more than anything, but I don't see it happening right now."

 **Dutch embassy, Washington DC, at the same time  
** Moving into a temporary office, general Van Doorn got a lot more visitors than when he was in New York. He was, however, surprised, when the ambassador himself entered.  
"Excellency! What can I do for you?" he greeted the other man.  
"General, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. I just got a call from Amsterdam. They want to open a formal investigation, on a UN request. It seems not everyone was on board with the decision you made about Argo."  
"I was afraid this might happen. Well it looks like I'm catching the next plane back. Would you do me a favor?"  
"What do you have in mind?"  
"Keep the press, especially the American, off me for as long as you can. Lead them on a wild goose chase so I can settle this with peace and quiet. The last thing I want is public opinion interfering with this."


	9. Epilogue

**International war crime tribunal, the Hague, Netherlands. Five years later.**

His career had begun in this country, it was only fitting it would end here. Peter Van Doorn sat on the defendants bench, a place normally reserved for dictators and mass murderers. He obviously didn't see himself that way, but the years he spent fighting the charges brought against him had made him question his decision. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, he could have done a lot of things differently. But then, in the heat of the moment and with the info he had, he was still certain he had made the best decision he could. Today would put his mind to rest just as much as everyone elses.

"Ladies and gentlemen, court is now in session. We are here today to hear the verdict on the case of the people against Peter Van Doorn. Defendant, please stand up." The general and his attorney got to their feet. "On the charge of unauthorized deployment of nuclear weapons, we rule not guilty. On the charge of mass murder, we rule not guilty.  
The reason the court ruled this way is twofold. War is messy, dangerous and unpredictable. We know this as well as anyone else. As a general and as a military commander, general Van Doorn made the best decision he could. Even five years of hindsight don't change that."  
The judge went more into detail explaining the process that allowed Van Doorn to activate the nuke in the first place, requiring the majority of the council to agree. But he confirmed what Van Doorn knew and what the initial military tribunal had already stated. US criminal court, Dutch military and now this. They had all tried him and he was acquitted three times. Now, finally, freedom was his again.

Of course, the initial press coverage had been intensive. However, it had died down within the first year of the trial. Now would be decided whether or nor he would be a free man or a felon, so naturally multiple reporters from all over the world had turned up. Of course, he was there. In the first row, the face was almost impossible to miss. Whether by chance or choice, they came close enough for a conversation.  
"Clark Kent, Daily Planet. Anything you'd like to say to defend your actions?"  
"I have said plenty in the last five years, but I'll repeat it just for you. My actions require no defense. In the same situation I'd do it again. You don't win a war by holding back. You win by exploiting any opening your enemy presents. What would you do in my position? Do nothing and risk losing right there and then? Or use the opportunity you are given for a single decisive strike to end the war, before it even begins? I stand by my decision and I'll live with the consequences."  
The general paused for a moment, before he continued. "Since the important people know already, I might as well tell you. I'm stepping down as commander of the XCOM project and going into retirement. My replacement should be announced soon. Good day."

 **Somewhere in Montana, 4 weeks later**

With all that had been going on in the last few years, Peter Van Doorn was happy to have some time off. He had gotten to know the minister of his community, the sheriff and a few other communal figures. They had not recognized him, news of the whole Argo mess and the trials that followed it had not spread to here. A generous retirement package from the UN and his own savings made sure he could buy this house he lived in now and spend his remaining days doing what he loved to do. Finishing his meal, he heard a knock on his front door.

When he opened, a middle aged woman in a business outfit greeted the now retired general. He had never actually met her, but Van Doorn knew who he was talking to: Lillian Luthor, the disgraced businesswoman who lead Cadmus.  
"General" she greeted him, with a warm maternal smile.  
"Mrs Luthor, you were probably the last person I'd be expecting to come and visit me."  
"Please. You have been the cause for a lot of news recently. Do you mind if I come in?"  
Van Doorn noticed her limousine was parked in his driveway, but no other person visible. He motioned her inside and made a gesture towards his couch.  
"What do you want?" he asked as they sat down.  
"First of all, I wanted to congratulate you. Aside from my son Alexander, you are the only person I know who ever stood up to the kryptonians the way you did. Your skills as a leader and your strength of character are what this planet needs so badly and sending you here" she gestured around the room "was a huge waste in my eyes. So this is what I want, the reason why I came all the way to Montana: I want – no, I'm begging you – to continue your work. Work for me, you'll have a place in Cadmus. We pay salaries even a 4-star general wouldn't dare to dream of."

It was true, just a week after Bradford, Vahlen and Shen had thrown their retirement party for him he already felt bored. Even though moving into this new house had been a lot of work, it was nowhere near as satisfying as his old position with the XCOM project. Still, Cadmus had a dubious reputation and he knew it was justified. It was hard to deny the temptation, he wanted to do something. The general had seen too much to just put his feet up and do nothing now.  
"I'll need time to think about this." He said.  
"Sure." Lillian replied, as she wrote something on a card, which she sat on his table. "When you do make up your mind, just call this number. I'll be waiting."

* * *

Authors' note: This is the end of this story, thank you to everyone who read, commented, reviewed, followed and liked my first ever dip into fanfiction. I hope you all had as much fun reading as I had writing. There will be more (probably), when I get time to dive into a different fandom again.


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